Labour Leader Starmer in Sleaze Probe Over VIP Football Freebies

Labour has repeatedly accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of fostering sleaze in his own party by not limiting MPs' earnings outside Parliament. But some of the leading voices on the opposition benches have second jobs of their own.

British opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer is under investigation for failing to declare earnings and free VIP football tickets on time.

The probe by Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone was revealed on Monday morning.

Starmer reportedly failed to declare two payments of £135.78 and £317.23 for authorship earnings from legal books he wrote within the required deadline.

The Arsenal FC supporter also enjoyed a gift of luxury seats for two of their away matches.

Starmer received two tickets for the Directors' Box at Crystal Palace on 4 April, worth £720 — which he only declared over a month later — and four seats for Watford vs Arsenal on 6 March, priced at £1,416 — registered two months later.

In a TV interview on Monday while on a by-election campaign visit to Wakefield in Yorkshire, the Labour leader claimed that he would have to ask his office about the probe, but was not surprised about it, then that he had been informed about it, and finally that was certain that he had done nothing wrong.

'Absolutely confident there's no problem here.

Sir Keir Starmer responds to being investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, insisting he's confident he's not broken the MPs’ code of conduct.

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"I need to talk to my office about it, but we'll respond in due course", Starmer said. "Has it come as a surprise to you?" the reporter asked, to which he replied: "No".

Asked when he became aware of the probe, Starmer said: "Well, all MPs are made aware if there's any concerns, and my office is dealing with it and will be replying in due course". Asked if he was sure of his innocence, he replied: "Absolutely confident, there's no problem here".

Labour has repeatedly accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of fostering sleaze in his own party by not limiting MPs' earnings outside Parliament since Owen Paterson was forced to step down from his North Shropshire seat in November 2021 over "cash for questions" allegations.

But some of the leading voices on the opposition benches have second jobs of their own, including Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who presents a three-hour weekly show on LBC radio. Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner was also revealed to have received four times as much from donors as Tory MPs she accused of sleaze.

Starmer has also repeatedly demanded that Johnson resign over the "partygate" affair that saw him fined £50 for eating cake at a surprise Downing Street birthday party during the summer 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. But he and Rayner later had to pledge they would quit if fine over their own alleged rule-breaking at a curry and beer night for 20 party activists in the city of Durham in April 2021.