Labour ran their successful election campaign on the promise of ‘CHANGE’. ‘Change’ is a straightforward word with a well-understood meaning – a clear promise to do things differently. Mere weeks into this Labour Party government’s first term, however, we already have ministers irritably excusing more of the same:
'All MPs take gifts and donations. That is the system that we have. The important thing is that we are transparent.'@lisanandy speaks to @AnnaJonesSky about the criticism that PM Sir Keir Starmer is facing over receiving free giftshttps://t.co/76N2BSFVA5
📺 Sky 501 and YT pic.twitter.com/zcpkK9yyJy
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 21, 2024
Angela Rayner says she gets that people are frustrated about politicians taking thousands of pounds in 'gifts', but its been a feature of our politics for a very long time.
Our predecessors were corrupt, so we'll be corrupt too! #bbclaurak pic.twitter.com/AB4cB6Y4yl
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) September 22, 2024
This is insane. Labour’s Bridget Phillipson says she took a £14,000 donation, primarily to throw a birthday party.
She’s smiling while she divulges this information. I’m genuinely in awe that they don’t appear to see how bad this looks. pic.twitter.com/FgX9qyzHuA
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) September 22, 2024
Starmer defends corporate seats for Arsenal games https://t.co/rPiCOO060c
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) September 19, 2024
Oh dear.
Turns out the ‘change’ they meant was fistfuls of ‘loose change’ being stuffed into the designer pockets of their crony-bought clothing.
One rule for us, one declaration form for MPs
Interviewed on Saturday 21 September, culture secretary Lisa Nandy said:
We don’t want the news and the commentary to be dominated by conversations about clothes.
We rightly have a system, I think, where the taxpayer doesn’t fund these things. We don’t claim on expenses for them. And so MPs will always take donations, will always take gifts in kind.
MPs of all political parties have historically done that and that is the system that we have.
Most people don’t have their clothes bought for them by the taxpayer; do you know how we solve that problem? We buy our own clothes.
Also, let’s not forget the average salary for 30-60-year-olds in this country is £37-40k; the wages for people in government are as follows:
- Prime minister: £75,440.
- Cabinet minister: £67,505.
- Minister of state: £31,680.
- Parliamentary under-secretary of state: £22,375.
This is money they receive ON TOP OF THEIR MP’s SALARY OF £85,584.
These amounts are also on top of the various things they can claim on their expenses.
In other words, the idea that government ministers have no option but to create obvious conflicts of interest if they want to leave the house fully clothed is ridiculous.
Nandy also said (emphasis added):
We rightly have a system, I think, where the taxpayer doesn’t fund these things. We don’t claim on expenses for them. And so MPs will always take donations, will always take gifts in kind.
MPs of all political parties have historically done that and that is the system that we have.
There’s that famous ‘change’ we were promised!
Deputy PM Angela Rayner made a similar point when interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg:
I get that people are frustrated, in particular the circumstances that we’re in, but donations for gifts and hospitality and monetary donations have been a feature of our politics for a very long time.
She understands why it’s wrong but that’s the situation, sadly – IF ONLY LABOUR HAD THE POWER TO CH-CH-CHANGE IT!
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson admitted taking a £14k donation from mega-donor lord Waheed Alli (although she denies that the party which took place before her 40th birthday was a ‘birthday party’). Phillipson excused taking the money as follows:
Look, the reason that we can have this conversation is because colleagues have followed the rules. I’ve followed the rules. I’ve set out in the register of interests what donations were [and] who they were from, and that’s there for the public to see.
Look, the carbon which was released into the atmosphere was all done so perfectly legally – why are people complaining about climate change? The filth in our rivers and seas was dumped there as permitted; why is everyone complaining about privatised water?
It’s legal.
They legalised it.
You can’t mad at them for doing something wrong if they make it legal.
A bribe by any other name
Labour’s argument is that ‘donations’ aren’t ‘bribes’ because donations are declared and transparent while bribes are undeclared and murky. Functionally, though, what’s the difference? Either way, politicians are accepting valuables from mega-rich donors who want something in return. The only meaningful difference is that we’ve created a bureaucratic process which allows MPs to rubber stamp their ill-gotten gains ‘NOT-CORRUPT’.
This fact has not gone unnoticed:
Can Starmer go successive days without taking freebies?
I appreciate his defenders think this is some conspiracy – but lobbyists and business give stuff to politicians for a reason. He’s the Prime Minister! Brazenly carrying on like this should be beneath him. pic.twitter.com/x8b6MgEBmD
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) September 22, 2024
Can we please just stop this bullshit about MPs like Starmer accepting "gifts" and "donations"?
They're bribes, pure and simple. The PM and countless other MPs very publicly accept BRIBES and what's worse is they're laughing at us struggling while they themselves rob a living. pic.twitter.com/B44xO9LcSN
— Red Collective (@RedCollectiveUK) September 21, 2024
The system is corrupt. It allows the super-rich to buy politicians. Starmer is the PM. He has a massive majority. He could *change* the system if he wanted to. He doesn't. He's happy with it. So is Lisa Nandy. Jeremy Corbyn wasn't. Nandy and Starmer hate Corbyn. You do the maths. https://t.co/99QRaWar12
— Frank Owen's Legendary Paintbrush🥀🇵🇸🇾🇪 (@OwenPaintbrush) September 21, 2024
There are some remaining Starmer supporters who seem happy to torch their reputation on a man who clearly has no respect for them. After all, if he truly cared for his defenders, he’d make some effort to behave defensibly:
I don’t give a shit about Starmer’s donations. Not because I’m a “Starmer lover” but because, unlike the Tory govt, donations are actually declared and not accompanied by any evidence of corruption. Every single other PM has accepted donations. It’s desperate straw clutching.
— Supertanskiii (@supertanskiii) September 21, 2024
People are noting why the Starmer-defenders are mistaken. It’s not because the media is being less lenient towards Labour than it was towards the Tories – a given in British politics – it’s because refusing to ‘change’ what’s actually wrong with this country is indefensible:
Starmerites respond to Suitgate by saying 'Yeah but, yeah but, look what the Tories did.'
No excuse.
If it was wrong when the Tories did it, it's wrong when Starmer carries on doing it.
— Alan Gibbons (@mygibbo) September 21, 2024
The funny thing is that Labour knew this stuff was wrong when they were out of office; why the surprise now they’re in?
Amusing… https://t.co/0XSK2IvJCA
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) September 22, 2024
Tory MP David Morris received £10,000 from Aquind in 2019 before asking a question in Parliament about regulatory issues that would benefit the company.https://t.co/1wwHnt2K06
— Lisa Nandy MP (@lisanandy) April 21, 2021
Rayner in particular had a bone to pick with the Tories and their rampant cronyism, and she was right to pick it. Let’s hope this spirit reawakens:
This stinks of yet more Tory cronyism. https://t.co/1VKbn4aMQF
— Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) June 17, 2022
After 13 years of sleaze, scandal and cronyism – it’s time to stop the rot.
Labour will restore faith in public service with our plan to clean up politics.
Thank you to @instituteforgov for hosting my speech on standards in public life this week. pic.twitter.com/ptWVcS4n4h
— Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) July 16, 2023
The more things change
Here are just some of the times Starmer robotically repeated the word ‘change’ over the past few months:
Tomorrow is your chance to vote for change with Labour.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) July 3, 2024
My government will serve you.
Politics can be a force for good.
The work of change begins today. pic.twitter.com/b5R3VWVUrI
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) July 5, 2024
The work of change begins today. pic.twitter.com/DfP1UG1Upr
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) July 5, 2024
The change we got?
- Replacing austerity-for-most with austerity-for-most-but-especially-old-people.
- Replacing cash-for-access scandals with designer clothes-for-access scandals.
- Replacing the hostile Rwanda scheme with a hostile Italian job.
Why is @starmer meeting with Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, a literal fascist, to discuss immigration? What does he hope to learn from her? pic.twitter.com/nThfvibxAV
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) September 16, 2024
How is all this anti-change going down, you ask?
This is an unprecedented collapse in support after an election win: Starmer's ratings plummet by 45 points in 2 months.
Who would have thought promising yet more austerity, imposing hardship on pensioners and kids, while taking freebies from rich donors wouldn't go down well! https://t.co/LfzdY0U1Pq
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) September 21, 2024
No matter what Labour does, the right-wing press will ruthlessly go after them. Given that, their only way of winning and maintaining public support is to act in the public’s interest.
This should be obvious.
The fact that Labour is pushing ahead with unpopular reforms while accepting money from the billionaires who’ll benefit suggests they genuinely don’t have the public’s interest in mind – no matter how officially they declared their intentions.
Featured image via Labour (YouTube)
