ANAS Sarwar and Ian Murray have been caught up in the Labour freebies row as it has emerged they were treated to hospitality at a Liverpool match.
The Scottish Labour leader and Scottish Secretary were guests of Salmon Scotland at Anfield on Saturday as Liverpool beat Bournemouth 3-0, according to The Times.
The disclosure came at the first day of the UK Labour conference – also taking place in the Merseyside city – which has been dominated by revelations about donations and freebies accepted by Keir Starmer and his team.
The conference started on Sunday and will go on until Wednesday, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Sarwar due to make key speeches on Monday.
It comes after the Sunday National revealed newbie Scottish Labour MPs have declared more than £1000 in freebies within weeks of being elected.
Reacting to the news around Sarwar and Murray, SNP councillor Ian Gallagher posted on Twitter/X: “Seems it’s not just #FreeGearKeir, Anas and Ian love a freebie too.”
Another user said on the site: “So much for change, more like short-changed by Scottish Labour.”
Starmer’s Government have been dogged by a month of damaging revelations around freebies.
It emerged over the weekend that Starmer, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Reeves will no longer accept donations of clothing after it was revealed Starmer had received more than £16,000 for work clothing and spectacles, and further donations for his wife, from Labour peer Waheed Alli.
SNP MP Dave Doogan said the Prime Minister’s actions were “totally indefensible”.
Tarry paid for his own flights but benefited from free accommodation, according to The Sunday Times.
Parliamentary rules state that MPs must declare foreign trips which they, or anyone connected to them, undertake if a donor pays for “part or all” of it as a result of their “parliamentary or political activities”.
Reeves has also been caught up in the row as it emerged she has accepted £7500 towards the cost of clothes since the start of last year.
Trade minister and Scottish Labour MP Douglas Alexander said the stories around free gifts for Labour figures were “not the headlines we would have chosen”.
Alexander said the public expected prospective prime ministers to be “well turned out” but he accepted that some people would be “worried” by what they had read in newspapers.
Doogan said people would be “aghast at the naivety of UK Government ministers leaving themselves open to whatever the donors of these gifts expect in return”.
He added: “Let’s be really clear, Angela Rayner in particular, and Keir Starmer especially – these are not poor people.
“If Keir Starmer wanted £2,500 worth of glasses, he could have easily bought them.
“But he didn’t. He took it off somebody who was offering it to him, and that’s not the world that the rest of us walk in.”
