Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to make sure Labour MPs return hundreds of thousands of pounds received from a mystery company that has emerged as one of Westminster’s biggest donors.
Campaign group Momentum has demanded that three Labour MPs – Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis – “come clean” about their link to MPM Connect and return money accepted from the firm.
The left-wing pressure group, set up after Jeremy Corbyn became leader, also urged Sir Keir to commit to a series of tough new sleaze measures to “clean up politics”.
Momentum is demanding that Sir Keir recommits to all the anti-sleaze measures set out in Labour’s 2019 manifesto – including a ban on donations from tax avoiders, a new lobbying register and closing loopholes on the use of shell companies in donations.
The left-wing grassroots group said it would mobilising its supporters to lobby Sir Keir in support of the proposals. A motion is also planned for local Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) to pass.
Kate Dove, the co-chair of Momentum, said Labour should “practice what we preach” and recommit to cleaning up “dark money” being funnelled into politics.
“That should start with Streeting, Cooper and Jarvis coming clean and returning the cash,” she said. “But it shouldn’t end there – if he is serious about restoring trust to public life, Keir Starmer should commit to kicking corporate interests out of political financing altogether.”
The activist added: “Keir Starmer has promised a new era of integrity and decency in public life – we’re calling on him to live up to that high standard by recommitting to policies which will clean up politics, like banning the use of shell companies to funnel dark money into politics.”
It emerged on Monday that MPM Connect gave a total of just over £345,000 to three Labour MPs – shadow home secretary Ms Cooper (£184,317), shadow health secretary Mr Streeting (£60,900), and Mr Jarvis (£100,000).
The company was registered to an office in Hertfordshire with no website and, according to its accounts, no employees, Sky News reported. When the broadcaster visited that office, a person said they hadn’t heard of the firm.
Ms Cooper’s spokesperson later said that MPM Connect was an investment company in the employment sector owned by Peter Hearn, “a UK businessman and long-standing Labour supporter”.
They added that it had “all been fully declared and compliant with all the rules” and said the firm was registered to their “accountant’s office, as is made very clear in its Companies House entry”.
Mr Jarvis issued a similar statement and said the money had been used to help run his offices in Barnsley and Westminster and “to provide a better service to my constituents”.
A spokesperson for Wes Streeting said Mr Hearn’s company “kindly funds staff for Wes’s office”, adding: “Wes is proud to have successful business people supporting the Labour Party in our campaign to win the next election ... This has been declared in the proper way in accordance with the rules.”
It is understood that Mr Streeting knows Mr Hearn because they attended the same state prime schools in east London.
Labour MP Jon Trickett, who was shadow Cabinet Office minister under Mr Corbyn, said: “Being transparent about the sources of political donations is a necessary first step. The ultimate goal must be to stop the influence of private money completely.”
Sir Keir outlined a five-point plan to clean up politics – including a ban on second jobs with “very limited exemptions”, create stricter rules about “donations from shell companies” and a new ethics and integrity commission.
The row comes as it emerged that Labour and Sir Keir have accepted £380,000 from a wealthy donor who has also been funding Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists.
Ecotricity founder Dale Vince has given £360,000 to the party and £20,000 to Sir Keir since the last election, according to Sky News and Tortoise media’s Westminster Accounts investigation.
Mr Vince said he has given “tens of thousands” to Just Stop Oil – the activist group condemned by the Labour leader as “wrong and arrogant” for staging disruptive protests which halted traffic.
“We’ve reached the point when taking to the streets is all we’ve got,” the donor told Sky News. “The direction of travel [on climate change] is a disastrous one, so I understand why those organisations do the things they do.”
It also emerged that the Labour leader has received the highest amount in personal donations of any MPs since the last election – taking in just over £752,000.
Rishi Sunak was second on the list, receiving just over £546,000, narrowly ahead of former Tory PM Liz Truss with £537,000 and Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves with £441,000.
Amid concerns over where money flowing into Westminster is coming from, it also emerged that MPs have declared almost £5m in outside earnings without disclosing their end clients since 2019.
Almost 50 MPs declared earnings from intermediaries such as consultancies and speaking agencies without explaining who ultimately paid for their work.
This article was amended on 11 January 2023 to remove unsubstantiated claims by a Labour party source about Momentum’s funding.
