NEWBIE Scottish Labour MPs declared more than £1000 in freebies within weeks of being elected to Parliament, the Sunday National can reveal.
Glasgow South MP Gordon McKee was courted with tickets worth £550 to the men’s final at Wimbledon a little more than a week after the election while Edinburgh North and Leith MP Tracy Gilbert got tickets worth the same for the ladies’ final.
Alan Gemmell (above), the newly elected MP for Central Ayrshire, declared a gift of a £450 ticket to the R+A Open in his constituency just a fortnight after he was elected to Westminster.
It comes amid growing concerns over Keir Starmer’s penchant for freebies.
The Prime Minister – who has insisted that his guiding principle in politics is that “public service is a privilege” – has declared gifts worth more than £100,000 since December 2019.
Starmer and his wife have been gifted thousands to pay for clothes and glasses by Labour super-donor Lord Alli.
Of the new Scottish MPs elected to Westminster in July, only McKee (above), Gilbert and Gemmell have so far declared gifts.
McKee and Gilbert were gifted their tickets by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), which helps put on the annual tennis tournament in Wimbledon, London.
Returning MPs have also claimed gifts since the election, with LibDem MP Wendy Chamberlain being given £750 tickets for the R&A Open in St Andrews, Fife. Tory John Lamont was given tickets worth £350 for the same.
Elsewhere, in a separate category in the register of members’ financial interests, SNP MP Chris Law took a £6920 trip to Taiwan paid for by the country’s foreign affairs ministry.
The Dundee Central MP said the trip was for the “annual summit of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China” and included talks on “the importance of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific to domestic prosperity”.
Concerns are growing about the ability of private companies and organisations to influence by gifting politicians tickets to things like sporting events and concerts.
In Starmer’s case, there are fears his gifts from Premier League clubs may affect decisions about Labour plans to reform the regulation of professional football in England.
Greens MSP Maggie Chapman (below) told the Sunday National: “Politicians need to be very careful when accepting gifts to events that clearly don’t help them in their roles as elected representatives. We all know that this can be construed as buying favours for policy or investment decisions.
“We’ve seen it quite clearly over the past week with news of the unprecedented gifts Keir Starmer accepted, and with Health Secretary Wes Streeting taking hundreds of thousands of pounds from donors with links to private healthcare.
“With trust in politics low, all politicians have a responsibility to ensure there is never even the perception that they can be bought.”
SNP councillor Paul Leinster added: “This is just yet another example of a Labour Party whose members seem to see elected office as a way of lining their own pockets and living the high life while their constituents struggle through the cost of living crisis.”
McKee, Gilbert and Gemmell all toed the party line earlier this year and voted to axe the Winter Fuel Payment for all but the poorest pensioners – a move campaigners say will leave many elderly people facing the choice of heating or eating this winter.
A Labour spokesperson said: “All donations are declared in accordance with parliamentary and Electoral Commission rules.”
The LTA and R&A were approached for comment.
