Early evening summary
Keir Starmer has strongly defended his decision to accept corporate hospitality at Arsenal – while ducking questions about why he allowed a donor to pay for his glasses. (See 5.24pm.) In separate interviews, Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, suggested Starmer’s attendance at Arsenal matches and Taylor Swift concerts was “part of the job”.
Starmer has insisted he is “completely in control” following a row within government over Sue Gray, his chief of staff, being paid more than him. In an interview with BBC South East, asked why Gray was getting more than he was, Starmer said he was “not going to get into discussions about individual salaries about any members of my staff”. Pressed on whether he had a grip on his team following hostile briefings against Gray, he replied:
I’m completely in control. I’m focused and every day the message from me to the team is exactly the same, which is we have to deliver.
We were elected on a big mandate to deliver change, I am determined that we are going to do that.
Farage has said he is going to give up running Reform UK as a private company, turning it instead into a more normal political party. (See 3.39pm.)
Updated
Starmer says reform just as vital for NHS in Wales as in England
Keir Starmer has said that the need for NHS reform in Wales is just as important as it is in England.
In interviews with Welsh broadcasters, he was also reluctant to praise the way the NHS has been run in Wales over the last 25 years, when Labour-led governments have been in charge of the service from Cardiff.
The NHS in Wales performs worse than its English counterpart on many measures, but the Welsh Labour party has in the past been unenthusiastic about some of the approaches NHS modernisation favoured by Blairites like Wes Streeting, the health secretary for England.
Starmer and Streeting have repeatedly stressed the need for the service to reform. But Eluned Morgan, the new first minister of Wales has used slightly different language, saying this week that, although reform was necessary, “it’s difficult to do that when you’ve got long waiting lists that have to be our priority at the moment”.
In an interview with ITV Cymru Wales, asked if Wales needed similar reform to what is being proposed in England, Starmer replied:
That would be my strong view, because I think that that investment and reform need to go together.
When it was put to him that some English ideas, like more use of the private sector, have been rejected by Welsh Labour, Starmer replied:
Well, the principle that the NHS is a publicly funded service free at the point of use is absolutely key to me and we’re not going to alter that. On occasions using the private sector to get down waiting lists, Yes, that’s been going on a long time. We will do that to get waiting lists down.
But the most important thing is that I think reform is hugely important for the health service, whether it’s Wales or in England.
In an interview with BBC Wales, asked if he thought the Welsh government had done a good job with the NHS over the last 25 years, Starmer simply replied:
There are challenges that need to be met, there’s no doubt about that and I’m not going to pretend to you otherwise.
My job with the first minister is to work together to rise to whatever challenges there are and opportunities across Wales and I’m determined to do so.
Starmer says it would be 'huge mistake' to think summer riots linked to high levels of immigration
Keir Starmer has said that it would be a “huge mistake” to think that the riots in the summer were linked to high levels of immigration.
In an interview with ITV Calendar, he said he accepted that the rate of immigration was too high, and that it should come down. He went on:
I stand by that. I think we should be able to have a debate about that. This has got nothing to do with disorder. And I think anybody who’s conflating the two is making a huge mistake.
Asked if language used by politicians contributed to the riots (see 12.59pm), he replied:
I think politicians need to be really careful about the language that they use.
I accept that, on issues like immigration, there are concerns across the country which need to be resolved. But I will never accept that that sort of disorder, that sort of violence, is a way of settling any of those issues.
Starmer says accepting gift of use of corporate box at Arsenal will save taxpayer 'a fortune' given security issues
Keir Starmer has strongly defended his decision to accept corporate hospitality at Arsenal – while ducking questions about why he allowed a donor to pay for his glasses.
He has recorded a large number of regional TV interviews, and in several of them he was asked to justify accepting tickets, clothing and other gifts while leader of the opposition. Although information about the donations has been in the public domain for some time, there has been renewed interest in the gifts following the Sunday Times revelation that a donor also paid for some clothing for his wife.
Today ITV revealed that Starmer has now been given the use of a corporate box at Arsenal, the club he supports. In an interview with Simon Harris for ITV London, Starmer defended accepting this gift, saying it would save the taxpayer money. He explained:
Yes, very. I’ve had season tickets, Arsenal for a long time now, up in the stands where I’ve gone with my boy and my friends for year after year after year.
Now I’m prime minister. The security advice is that I can’t go to the stands. Or if I did, you’d have to do so much to the security and it would cost the taxpayer a fortune as a result.
I’ve been offered tickets elsewhere in the ground where it’s more secure. We don’t have to use taxpayer money on additional security. And that’s why I’ve taken the decision that I have.
Starmer also said people would think it was “self-centred” if he insisted on staying in the stands, at a greater cost to the taxpayer.
Asked if he was worried about being seen as “parliament’s king of freebies”, Starmer repeated the argument about football, and how being in a corporate box saved the taxpayer money.
As opposition leader he accepted almost 40 free sets of tickets, and at the time he argued that security was a factor – because he had protection officers at that point too, and they did not want him in the stands.
In a separate interview, with ITV Calendar’s Charanpreet Khaira, Starmer was asked how could defend taking £300 from pensioners (if they lose the maximum winter fuel payment) while wearing glasses worth £2,000. He was also asked if he was like Rishi Sunak, whom he criticised for being out of touch.
In his replies, Starmer did not talk about donations but said he was focused on delivering change.
Starmer has declared receiving “multiple pairs of glasses” worth a total of £2,485 from a donor before the election.
Updated
Commons authorities fail to back up Farage's claim they told him not to hold in-person surgeries on security grounds
The Commons authorities have failed to back up suggestions from Nigel Farage that they advised him not to hold in-person surgeries in his Clacton constituency.
In his LBC phone-in this morning, the Reform UK leader replied “when parliament allows me” when asked when he would start meeting constituents in person in his local office. He told a caller:
Do I have an office in Clacton? Yes. Am I allowing the public to flow through the door with their knives in their pockets? No, no I’m not.
When asked to explain, Farage said that David Amess, a less controversial MP, had been stabbed in his office while holding a constituency surgery.
Farage did not explicitly say that he had been told not to hold in-person surgeries. But he implied that was what he had been told by the speaker’s office and the security team working with the Commons speaker.
Asked if he had been told not to hold those surgeries, Farage replied: “I would have thought that would make sense, wouldn’t you?”
But sources have said Farage was not told to avoid in-person surgeries, because to have said that would have been an interference with his duties as an MP, PA Media reports. PA says:
There is no record of this advice having been given to the MP by either the speaker’s office or parliament’s security team and neither have any recollection of such a conversation, PA understands.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, said:
As a constituency MP in Chorley, I hold regular surgeries myself with constituents – and whenever a member asks for my advice on this matter, I always say that if you are going to hold constituency surgeries, make sure you take advice from the parliamentary security department – and do so safely.
A House of Commons spokesperson said:
The ability for MPs to perform their parliamentary duties safely, both on and off the estate, is fundamental to our democracy.
The Parliamentary Security Department (PSD), working closely with the police, offer all MPs a range of security measures for those with offices or surgeries in their constituencies – helping to ensure a safe working environment.
We do not comment on individual MPs’ security arrangements or advice because we would not wish to compromise the safety of MPs, parliamentary staff or members of the public, but these are kept under continuous review.
Farage did say he was holding some meetings on Zoom.
Farage says he will stop running Reform UK as personal company, and instead democratise party
Nigel Farage has said he is going to give up running Reform UK as a private company, turning it instead into a more normal political party.
In a video message he claimed that he will be “giving up control” – although his many years as leader of Ukip suggest he will comfortably see off anyone who tries to eclipse him.
As part of the change, members will get a say in party affairs – including, in theory, the right to vote Farage out as leader.
Unusually for a political party, Reform UK was set up as a company controlled by shareholders, and as the majority shareholder Farage had full control.
In his video, released ahead of the opening of the Reform UK conference tomorrow, Farage said that he structured the party like this for two reasons.
Number one, so that I could make very fast decisions, and you know, after 30 years in politics, hopefully I do roughly know what I’m doing.
But secondly, and most importantly, the real reason was to prevent a small, nascent political party being taken over by malign actors. And that was my really big fear.
But Farage said Reform UK now has 80,000 members and “thousands, literally thousands” of people wanting to stand for the party as candidates in local elections”.
Farage said, as a result, he was going to honour a promise he previously made to “democratise” the party.
I no longer need to control this party. I’m going to let go.
We will change the structure of the party from one limited by shares to a company limited by guarantee, and that means it’s the members of Reform that will own this party …
There will be a board put in place with elected representation to make sure the party is being managed properly and to make sure we don’t suffer from entryism.
He said these changes would be subject to agreement from the Electoral Commission, but he said he did not expect there to be a problem. And he ended saying: “I’m giving up control, I’m giving it to the members”.
In an interview with the Sun, Zia Yusuf, the Reform UK chair, he said the new constitution would give members “a say, not only at a local level, where they’ll be able to select candidates, select a chair, select a treasurer, secretary, campaign manager, but also at a national level”. This would include being able to vote out the leader, he said.
Yusuf did not give details of how this might happen, but it has been reported that the constitution will say a no confidence vote can take place if 50% of members write to the chair requesting one.
It is also being proposed that 50% of MPs could trigger a no confidence vote – but only from the point where the party has 100 MPs. Currently it has five.
Farage set up the Brexit party, which turned into Reform UK, as a private company partly because, as Ukip leader, he got frustrated dealing with its internal politics, and a national executive committee that had some power to block his ideas.
Even in a more democratic Reform UK, Farage is likely to remain as the person with firm, overall control. The proposed thresholds for a leadership challenge are much higher than in other parties, and Reform UK is largely seen as the Farage party, because no one else is anything like as popular with its members.
Updated
Some offenders were released early without tags fitted on time, MoJ says
There have been delays in fitting some offenders who have been released from prison with electronic tags, PA Media reports. PA says:
Some 1,700 prisoners were released early from their sentences last week in the first phase of the government’s plan to tackle overcrowding.
Prisons and probation minister Lord Timpson is due to have a meeting with security company Serco, which took over the MoJ’s tagging contract in May, today.
An MoJ spokesman said: “Tagging is an important part of our strategy to keep victims safe and cut reoffending, and there are currently record numbers of offenders wearing tags.
“We are holding Serco to account to address delays in fitting some offenders with tags, and will apply financial penalties against the company if this is not resolved quickly.
“While this issue is ongoing, we have prioritised tagging domestic-abuse offenders to make sure their licence conditions, such as staying away from their victims, are strictly followed.”
Serco have been approached for comment.
Last Tuesday’s exodus from jails across England and Wales included some convicted killers, and came after the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, announced plans in July to cut temporarily the proportion of sentences which inmates must serve behind bars from 50% to 40%.
The government said the measures were necessary as overcrowding had pushed jails to the “point of collapse”.
Home Office urged to scrap long, expensive and ‘racist’ visa route
A long and expensive visa route for immigrants has been called “racist” after analysis showed most applicants who feel forced to go through it are people of colour, Diane Taylor and Michael Goodier report.
Paul Brand, ITV’s UK editor, says the government’s line seems to be that voters don’t care very much about Keir Starmer accepting a large number of freebies when he was opposition leader. Brand thinks they are making a mistake.
Labour line on gifts/donations to the Prime Minister this morning appears to be that voters don’t care about this stuff and are only concerned about govt delivery.
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) September 19, 2024
But lesson from partygate is that just isn’t true. These matters alter the image of a govt, sometimes irreversibly.
Labour line on gifts/donations to the Prime Minister this morning appears to be that voters don’t care about this stuff and are only concerned about govt delivery.
But lesson from partygate is that just isn’t true. These matters alter the image of a govt, sometimes irreversibly.
This is a reminder of the massive polling dip for the Tories that followed partygate. It’s just not the case to say voters don’t care about this stuff, though I understand why Labour ministers might be reaching for that line. https://t.co/epKGppkh3b
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) September 19, 2024
This is a reminder of the massive polling dip for the Tories that followed partygate. It’s just not the case to say voters don’t care about this stuff, though I understand why Labour ministers might be reaching for that line.
Luke Tryl from More in Common, which released polling earlier today suggesting most voters do not approve of Starmer (or any other MP) accepting clothes or tickets as gifts (see 2.03pm) has posted these on social media saying he agrees with Brand.
Can honestly say having heard the anger from the public about these sorts of issues in focus group after focus group this line is wishful thinking. It’s also surprising given Starmer really seemed to get it isn’t just about policy, it’s about restoring faith in politics.
The sense of one rule or that politicians are in it for the perks is toxic not just to one party but faith in politics itself. It’s what is driving people to the extremes and is why mainstream parties are struggling to get above 30%.
It’s why Starmer’s language on integrity, the politics of service and respect were so powerful, I think it would be a mistake to think that side of the ledger doesn’t matter - not least as in many ways it’s inseparable from people’s perceptions of delivery.
It’s much harder to persuade people to take tough decisions or to back sacrifices in the greater good if they feel our political class are somehow exempt from that: it’s why partygate or gamblegate were so toxic.
I’d also add a further point “The Tories did worse” may or may not be fair, but it doesn’t matter in terms of how people weigh up this Government, and it certainly doesn’t matter politically when people have the option of anti establishment parties such as Reform & Greens.
Voters are overwhelmingly opposed to MPs accepting clothes or tickets to sporting events as gifts, according to polling by More in Common, a group that campaigns for a less divisive politics. This is from its director, Luke Tryl.
Just 7% of the public think it is acceptable to take donations for senior ministers clothing and only 8% think donations of hospitality to politicians are acceptable. In fact the public are sceptical about political donations per se, even for campaign materials. pic.twitter.com/mfEIJDJkAU
— Luke Tryl (@LukeTryl) September 19, 2024
Just 7% of the public think it is acceptable to take donations for senior ministers clothing and only 8% think donations of hospitality to politicians are acceptable. In fact the public are sceptical about political donations per se, even for campaign materials.
A reader asks:
Can you please obtain clarity from a Labour spokesperson, or even an expert in the English language or linguistics, as to the meaning of ‘lean into hope’? Baffling!
Good question. It is inspired by the headline on Jessica Elgot’s excellent scene-setter for the Labour conference, headlined: “Labour will lean into hope at first conference in power for 15 years”.
“Lean into” is a bit of political lingo that has become increasingly common at Westminster in the last few years. It is not a Labour or Tory term; everyone is using it. It means “convey a strong sense of (without being specific)”, and that’s a useful piece of Westminster terminology because a lot of political discourse involves positioning, hinting at X, Y or Z, but without making firm promises or commitments etc. An older generation would have talked about “showing a bit of ankle”, which meant much the same thing, but nowdays the political class prefers its cliches non-gendered.
If Labour are saying Keir Starmer will “lean into hope” at Labour conference, that means, as Jess explains, he is going to sound more upbeat than he was in his ‘things can only get worse’ Rose Garden speech, but without doing the full Barack Obama circa 2008 act.
In other words, the conference slogan might just as well be ‘Things can only get a bit better’.
Or it will be a hope-adjacent speech by Starmer, to use another bit of newish politico-speak.
Labour has announced the results of the election for nine CLP [constituency Labour party] representatives on the party’s national executive committee. Tom Belger from LabourList has a good write-up here. He says our pro-leadership slate candidates, three left candidates and two candidates outside the two largest slates were elected. He goes on:
Labour to Win [which organises the pro-leadership slate] said on social media its candidates had won a “decisive victory” and an “emphatic win for Labour’s mainstream”. It said it was the first time in two decades that self-described party moderates had won more CLP representative seats than the left.
The group also said 50 candidates it backed for places on Labour’s national policy forum, the party’s official process for drawing up its platform in the lead-up to the next election, had won election, calling it “our best-ever results since it started being elected by OMOV”.
Farage rejects claims he helped to trigger summer riots with video publicising false claims about Southport attacker
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has defended a video he posted online that led to him being widely accused of provoking the summer riots.
In the video released shortly after three young girls were killed by an attacker with a knife in Southport, Farage suggested “the truth is being withheld from us” and said there were reports the killer was known to security services.
He was widely criticised for publicising false information, and a subsequent poll in August said 51% of people viewed him as being to some extent responsible for the racist rioting that erupted in the wake of the Southport attacks.
Farage later admitted that one of the “reports” he was quoting came from Andrew Tate, a misogynist influencer facing criminal charges including human trafficking and rape.
But today, in a phone-in with LBC, Farage strongly defended his original video. Asked about the polling saying he was seen as to blame for the riots, Farage said that he was perceived like that because of “lies and incitement coming from Labour and Conservative politicians, and broadcasters”.
He went on:
I asked a very simple question: can we please be told the truth? That was all. Can we please be told the truth?
When it was put to him that his video message included the claim that some reports were saying the Southport killer was known to the security services, Farage said he was only saying that to ask if it were true. He went on:
What I thought vindicated me wholly was Jonathan Hall, KC, who is the tsar for terrorism and rioting, backed up by Lord Carlile, Liberal Democrat peer – both said that the public, the government and police, need to level with the public.
Farage was referring to Hall, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorist legislation telling a conference in September that the information “vacuum” after the Southport attack may have been a factor contributing to the riots. As the Times reports, Hall said:
One of the problems and the consequences of the Southport attack was that there was an information gap, a vacuum, which was filled with false speculation.
I personally think that more information could have been put out safely without comprising potential criminal proceedings.
As the Times reports, Carlile, a previous independent review of terrorist legislation, made the same point. He said:
I think we should get out more information if we possibly can. We have learned from these events that when somebody is arrested, and there was a potential issue like this arising, the police probably need to tell the media who has been arrested and what their background is.
Government says it will consult on 'tough' law to protect small firms from late payments
The government is going to consult on '“tough” new laws designed to reduce the extent to which small firms get their bills paid late.
Making the announcement, Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said late payments were “simply unacceptable” and that the new moves would help small businesses.
He said:
When the cashflow runs dry, small firms go under which is why we need to hold larger business to account with their payment practices and foster an environment that supports growth and jobs.
Previous governments have tried to protect SMEs (small and medium-sized entreprises) from late payment difficulties, and in theory big companies that do not report their payment practices face heavy penalties. But Reynolds said these sanctions were not being sufficiently enforced.
In a news release, the Department for Business and Trade said:
The government will consult on tough new laws which will hold larger firms to account and get cash flowing back into businesses – helping deliver our mission to grow the economy.
In addition, new legislation being brought in the coming weeks will require all large businesses to include payment reporting in their annual reports - putting the onus on them to provide clarity in their annual reports about how they treat small firms. This will mean company boards and international investors will be able to see how firms are operating.
Enforcement will also be stepped up on the existing late payment performance reporting regulations which require large companies to report their payment performance twice yearly on GOV.UK.
Anushka Asthana from ITV has more on why Labour advisers are so angry about Sue Gray’s pay. She has posted a thread on social media.
New- the reason Labour’s special advisers are so upset about this is many of them were put on standing salaries of £57k when they began, so Sue Gray is earning 3x that. Equivalent Tory spads were on over £100k. Contracts since negotiated but some still landing this week 1/ https://t.co/4qvWvo14nQ
— Anushka Asthana (@AnushkaAsthana) September 19, 2024
New- the reason Labour’s special advisers are so upset about this is many of them were put on standing salaries of £57k when they began, so Sue Gray is earning 3x that. Equivalent Tory spads were on over £100k. Contracts since negotiated but some still landing this week 1
They were told the Tory pay was not relevant. Instead there were four new pay bands. I understand that the highest goes from £140k- £180k. So is someone earning more than Sue Gray? Then there is senior spad, spad and junior spad. Sounds like even big depts are in 3rd band 2/
And though many have negotiated a bit higher than 57k it doesn’t sound like much higher, and way below predecessors. These are all big salaries of course but they feel they are working 7 days a week and not much more than in opposition 3/
Beyond that- there were people who were told they were getting roles in govt - but then weren’t on a pre-agreed list from no10 and so were suddenly out of jobs after working for four years or more in opposition. So there is bad blood 4/
Tories saying over £100k was quite rare but still the salaries were higher. In a way it’s less about salaries but more the upset it’s caused among a group of people who are pretty core to govt political functioning 5/
Farage claims Trump's baseless slurs about migrants in Ohio eating pet dogs will turn out to be right
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has said that Donald Trump’s claim about immigrants in Ohio eating pet cats and dogs – widely seen as one of the ex-president’s more ludicrous falsehoods – will turn out to be true.
Farage, who is proud of his friendship with Trump, made the claim this morning in a phone-in with LBC in which he also said he wanted to see Trump re-elected because he thought that would make the world safer.
Farage has been giving interviews ahead of the Reform UK conference, which opens in Birmingham tomorrow.
Asked on LBC why he supported Trump so much, Farage replied:
Because I think the world is a safer place with Trump, I think his instincts on the big stuff are right, I do not believe for a moment that Kabul would now be controlled by the Taliban again [if Trump had remained president].
I don’t believe for a moment that the Ukraine war would even have happened. And I think that peace through strength is a very important thing.
The presenter, Nick Ferrari, asked Farage if he believed Trump when he said, in his debate with Kamala Harris, that immigrants in Ohio were eating pet dogs and cats.
Trump is notorious for lying and saying things that are not true, but even by his standards this claim was seen as extreme. As Rachel Leingang explains for the Guardian here, there is no evidence for this allegation, which has been widely repeated by Republicans. It is a rumour that has spread on social media.
But Farage said he thought Trump would turn out to be right. He told Ferrari:
Whenever [Trump] says something like this that sounds absolutely crackers, in the end, there always proves to be some truth in it.
When Ferrari pressed him again, Farage said:
I’ll have a tenner with you that within the next month or so, we find some evidence of it. What the scale of it is, I have no idea …I think Trump generally, when he says these things, is proved to be right.
Even JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, has suggested there is an element of fabrication in the claims he and Trump has been spreading. In an interview with CNN at the weekend Vance said the claims were based on “first-hand accounts”. But he went on:
The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.
Updated
Reynolds says he rejects 'very much' Israeli PM's claim that suspension of some arms sales was boost to Hamas
In interviews this morning Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, also said that he rejected “very much” a claim by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, that Labour’s decision to suspend some arms sales to his country was a boost to Hamas.
Netanyahu made the claim in an interview with the Daily Mail. He told the paper:
After the October 7 Hamas massacre, the previous British government was clear in its support. Unfortunately, the current government is sending mixed messages.
They say that Israel has the right to defend itself, but they undermine our ability to exercise that right both by reversing Britain’s position on the absurd allegations made by the ICC [International Criminal Court] prosecutor against Israel and by blocking weapons sales to Israel as we fight against the genocidal terrorist organisation that carried out the October 7 massacre.
And, on the suspension of arms sales, he said:
The new UK government suspended 30 arms licences to Israel, days after Hamas executed six Israeli hostages, sending a horrible message to Hamas.
These misguided decisions will not change Israel’s determination to defeat Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organisation that savagely murdered 1,200 people on October 7, including 14 British citizens, and took 255 people, including five British hostages.
Thursday's DAILY MAIL: Labour has 'undermined' Israel, says Netanyahu#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/7DHA5Fun2F
— Jack Surfleet (@jacksurfleet) September 18, 2024
Asked how he reacted to Netanyahu saying Labour was sending a “horrible message to Hamas”, Reynolds said:
I would respectfully reject very much that position and say the decision we took was fair, was proportionate, was consistent with international law, and, fundamentally what we need, what everyone needs in the Middle East is a ceasefire in that conflict.
That is in Israel’s interest. I think it’s in everyone’s interest to make sure we get there.
But we will always comply with international law as a government. I think you’d expect that of the UK government, but I was cognisant of the risk in the north, in Lebanon, from Hezbollah, and made sure the restrictions we put in place reflected that situation.
As business secretary, Reynolds took the final decision to suspend the arms licences, but he was acting on advice from the Foreign Office.
As mentioned earlier, Chris Mason, who as the BBC’s political editor has the hardest job in the lobby (because everyone has a strong view on how the BBC should cover politics), has written a blog about how and why he and colleagues ending up breaking the story about Sue Gray’s salary. He says he was first told the information by a government insider on Sunday – “I had not gone looking for this information, it found me” – and that over the next two days they were able to verify and corroborate what he had been told. On why it matters, he says:
This story, at its crux, is not about [Gray’s] salary per se.
It is about the levels of upset and anger - fair or otherwise - about her and her role at the top of government.
That is what motivated the person who tipped me off - at considerable professional risk - to tell me what I am now telling you.
And I know from other conversations I have had - and members of our BBC team have had - that this person is far from alone.
And that tells you something about the fractious relationships among some at the top of government, less than three months after Labour won the election.
Updated
Reynolds defends Starmer over accepting free tickets, saying MPs need to be 'engaged' with cultural life
In his interviews this morning Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, defended Keir Starmer over his record of accepting freebies.
On Monday the Guardian reported that “Starmer has declared more free tickets and gifts than other major party leaders in recent times, with his total now topping £100,000”. Sky News has also produced its own version of this story, with figures showing how Starmer compares with other MPs who have accepted many gifts.
Referring to Starmer accepting tickets for events like football matches and concerts, Reynolds said that politicians doing jobs that involved working long hours needed some relaxation. Speaking on Times Radio, he said:
There’s always going to be the case where people in public life are invited to certain events. I can tell you having been a secretary of state for two months, pretty much every working hour of it is spent working. And if people get the chance for a little bit of relaxation as part of that, again, I’ve no problem or objection to that.
When the presenter, Aasmah Mir, put it to Reynolds that he seemed to be saying these freebies were “a perk of the job”, Reynolds argued politicians accepted tickets to events like this so they could “engage” with people.
It’s not a perk of the job, it’s part of the job. People want to engage with decision makers. They want to ask you to be aware of what they are doing. Again, I think we have the right rules on transparency in relation to that. But this is about the job that we do and the need to be engaged with the sectors that we cover.
And he made the same argument on Sky News, where he was asked specifically about Starmer accepting tickets for a Taylor Swift concert. Reynolds said:
I think these are major cultural, sporting events. I think it’s important people in public life have some connection to that, that they are aware of that. Of course, going to see Taylor Swift – I’ve never seen her myself, but I hear it’s a very significant and lovely experience to do so.
But, again, as long as those things are declared openly, transparently, in accordance with the rules, there’s no objection on my part to that.
Jonathan Reynolds rejects claim Sue Gray showed ‘stunning arrogance’ accepting higher salary than Keir Starmer
Good morning. Yesterday the BBC broke the story that Sue Gray, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, is paid £170,000 a year, which is about £3,000 a year more than the PM himself. It is not a typical BBC story (more on that later), and it would be a classic prosecution exhibit for anyone arguing that political journalists are too obsessed with insider processology. There is also a strong argument that ministers and officials at the very top of politics are paid relatively little anyway if you take into account the skill set required, the hours worked, and what they might earn in the private sector.
Yes, as Chris Mason, the BBC’s political editor has argued in a blog about the story, this is more than just a slice of Whitehall trivia. That is because the story suggests serious feuding is happening within the Labour adviser machine in government. A story like this would not have ended up on the BBC without someone quite important briefing viciously against Gray, and the revelation has angered other special advisers who claim that Gray is to blame for them being offered measly salaries, at least compared to what their Tory predecessors were on, or what they were earning when they were paid by the Labour party.
So what, you might think. A few dozen special advisers most people have never heard of want to be paid more. Don’t we all? That might end up as being the appropriate response to the story. But if this row means No 10 can’t function properly because the PM’s most senior political adviser is too divisive, it will matter.
Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has been doing a media round this morning, and, in an interview with Kay Burley on Sky News, he rejected her suggestion that Gray’s decision to accept more pay than the PM demonstrated her “stunning arrogance”. When this was put to him, Reynolds replied:
Clearly this an important job.
There’s a process that sets these paybands. It will reflect previous experience … It is a long-established way of establishing within certain pay bands renumeration relating to the job that you do. That’s what have been followed in this case.
The original BBC story included a quote from a source saying it was put to Gray that she might want to accept a small cut so she earned less than the PM, and that she declined. Government sources are saying that is “categorically untrue”.
Reynolds also suggested Starmer himself did not decide Gray’s pay. He said:
I think it’s important people understand that the pay bands for any official, any adviser, are not set by politicians. There’s an official process that does that. I don’t, for instance, get to set the pay for my own advisers who work directly for me. So, there’s a process, we don’t have political input into that.
The decision to increase the top salary available to special advisers in No 10, compared to what it was before the election, was taken by a committee of officials. But, according to the BBC story, Starmer signed off its decision.
When it was put to Reynolds that this was hypocritical given the fact that Starmer criticised Dominic Cummings getting a big pay rise when he was Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, Reynolds ignored this point and just replied:
There’s a process that sets these things. It is widely recognised. It’s long-standing. It hasn’t changed and that is how pay bands are set for any adviser.
There will be more on this as the morning goes on – not least because there is not much else in the diary. In fact, the main news is likely to come late afternoon. Starmer is doing a marathon series of interviews with regional TV editors (26 of them, according to Politico), but their contents are embargoed until 5pm.
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