The Cabinet has accepted more than £800,000 in donations and freebies this year, a Telegraph analysis has revealed.
David Lammy, the Foreign Secetary, has received the most since the beginning of 2024, having accepted more than £150,000 worth. This included £2,500 worth of tickets to see Tottenham Hotspur, with the use of a hospitality box.
The largest sum donated to him was from Labour Together, a Starmerite think tank, which donated £40,440 for the “provision of research and writing services”.
Labour Cabinet ministers have accepted £753,017 in donations and £90,853 in gifts since the beginning of the year, according to the analysis of the members’ register of interests.
Mr Lammy is followed by Wes Streeting, who received £117,000 in donations and gifts, among them four tickets and hospitality to see Taylor Swift at Wembley costing £1,160.
The Health Secretary’s biggest donation was valued at £48,000 in four instalments from OPD Group Ltd, a company controlled by Peter Hearn, a recruitment mogul and one of Labour’s biggest donors.
He also accepted £13,000 “towards staffing costs” while Labour was in opposition, declared in April, from Kevin Craig, a businessman who later stood to become the Labour MP in Suffolk Coastal.
Mr Craig was later forced to stand down after it emerged he placed a bet on his constituency outcome in the general election, betting that the Tories would win. Mr Streeting returned his donation from Mr Craig.
Among Angela Rayner’s £104,000 in gifts and donations since the start of the year was £2,230 for clothing from ME+EM, a British luxury fashion brand.
Donations and gifts to politicians have come under renewed scrutiny in recent weeks after Sir Keir Starmer became embroiled in a row over funding clothes donated to him and his wife by Lord Alli.
The backlash led to the Prime Minister promising that he would stop taking donations for clothing, a pledge matched by Ms Rayner and Rachel Reeves.
Other revelations included Lady Starmer accepting two tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, worth hundreds of pounds each. Bridget Phillipson, Darren Jones and Mr Streeting also accepted tickets to the tour.
Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, accepted two tickets to see Kylie Minogue perform at Hyde Park, and Pat McFadden and his wife accepted Bruce Springsteen concert tickets.
MPs are supposed to declare gifts and donations to the parliamentary authorities within 28 days of receiving them. They are supposed to inform officials of “any interest which someone might reasonably consider to influence their actions or words as an MP”.
Gifts are classed as a benefit with a value of over £300 provided at a concessionary rate or free of charge, which can include event tickets and gifted clothes and jewellery.
Across declared gifts and donations, the biggest donors were Labour Together, which gave more than £209,000 to Cabinet ministers. The second was Public Digital, a consultancy firm, and the third OPD Group, followed by Lord Alli.
The Football Association has given £19,870 in gifts and donations to key Labour figures this year and gifted all the Taylor Swift tickets declared on the register.
Labour MPs have called on Sir Keir to stop taking all “freebies” following the uproar over the Lord Alli donations, with one telling The Telegraph that several colleagues were “livid”.
“This is what hypocrisy looks like – and most of us have been fighting the ‘they’re all the same’ rhetoric for our whole careers,” said the MP. “Keir’s double standards just prove it’s entirely accurate.”
Another said acceptance of such gifts could grate on the public, who “don’t have any gifts adorned on them”.