The questions from broadcasters over freebies were blunt: “Do you get it, though?” and “Can’t you see how it looks?” Judging from the responses given by Sir Keir Starmer and Jonathan Reynolds, the worrying answer appears to be: not really. Of course, as Sir Keir said, there are “human explanations” for his decision to accept hospitality worth tens of thousands of pounds from Premier League football clubs – chiefly that he wants to continue to attend Arsenal games with his son safely. The free loan of a central London flat over the election period was also put down to family circumstances.
But at a time when public confidence in political and other institutions is fragile, and party loyalties less secure than ever before, the fallout from the PM’s declaration of interests including £107,000-worth of gifts is a clumsy own goal. Nor can it be dismissed as a one-off error, when several senior colleagues are also involved. Labour won office on a promise of change that explicitly referred to conduct as well as policy. Sir Keir’s pride in his working-class background, and the values of decency and tenacity he took from it, were a key part of his pitch to voters – and a point of difference with the Tories, whom Labour pilloried for cronyism and a lack of probity.
