The Labour Government

[metalblue]

Have you got any evidence that it was corruption?

It sort of smells a bit.

https://www.ft.com/content/8550022e-bfa3-4d87-b493-09baffba45c9


Lord Alli has also made several gifts to MPs, including a £1.2mn loan to help MP Siobhain McDonagh move house so that her sick sister could be cared for, £16,200 for Starmer to buy work clothing, and £20,000 in accommodation costs for the prime minister during the election campaign. Over the past year, Alli has made donations to four cabinet ministers: Starmer, foreign secretary David Lammy, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and education secretary Bridget Phillipson.

He also donated to Liam Conlon (Sue Gray’s son) who upon winning his seat at first attempt was made a Parliamentary Private Secretary. Quite the job for someone who’d only been an MP for a couple of weeks.

Lord Alli then got his free pass to Downing Street.

All above board you’ll say. Looking beyond that what about the appointments of Labour donors to civil service roles. The new Labour government came under fire earlier this month for hiring Ian Corfield, a former banker and business adviser who made political donations to chancellor Rachel Reeves, to a senior role in the Treasury. Following criticism of the appointment, Corfield has opted to leave the paid government position and instead take on a role as a temporary, unpaid adviser to the Treasury, according to people briefed on the move. Former consultant Emily Middleton was also named a director-general in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology after she was seconded to the Labour party while it was in opposition. The firm where she was a partner, Public Digital, had offered secondments worth more than £65,000 to the team of Peter Kyle, shadow technology secretary at the time, including Middleton’s own position.

Corruption or Cronyism? You decide but you’ve got to admit it’s not great look.

 

[Chippy_boy]

You're choosing to link 2 completely seperate issues, as I'm sure the Daily Mail and Telegraph and GBN are doing. But just think what you're suggesting:

That Starmer taking donations from a known Labour donor in 2019-2024 whilst in opposition, should have a material impact on policy then introduced when they are in government?

If the rules need to change on this stuff, then so be it, but don't conflate two completely separate issues as you have done.

I don't think they are two seperate issues. The first ticket was for June of this year and a later on in August.

It is nonsense to pretend that this is unconnectred because Starmer was not PM in June. It was obvious to everyone in June - including everyone at the Premier League - that he would shortly be the next Prime Minister. And then there's the August tickets.

The government announced in July that it would be pressing ahead with the Football Regulation Bill and you honestly don't see any potential conflct of interest with the Premier League giving him £4,000 of free tickets to a concert?

Someone would have to be a VERY partisan pro-Labour to not see that this is "inappropriate", to say the least. It would get you sacked at most companies, I suggest.

EDIT: I reflected upon this after posting it. I am currently in sales, and for my job, I negotiate multi-million pound contracts with new and existing customers. To imagine that I could accept thousands of pounds worth of Taylor Swift tickets - some only for my wife - from one of the parties who would be impacted by the contract??? It's mind boggling. I wouldn't entertain doing so in a million years.

If nothing else, it demonstrates that Starmer has appallingly bad judgement on such matters.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

It sort of smells a bit.

https://www.ft.com/content/8550022e-bfa3-4d87-b493-09baffba45c9


Lord Alli has also made several gifts to MPs, including a £1.2mn loan to help MP Siobhain McDonagh move house so that her sick sister could be cared for, £16,200 for Starmer to buy work clothing, and £20,000 in accommodation costs for the prime minister during the election campaign. Over the past year, Alli has made donations to four cabinet ministers: Starmer, foreign secretary David Lammy, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and education secretary Bridget Phillipson.

He also donated to Liam Conlon (Sue Gray’s son) who upon winning his seat at first attempt was made a Parliamentary Private Secretary. Quite the job for someone who’d only been an MP for a couple of weeks.

Lord Alli then got his free pass to Downing Street.

All above board you’ll say. Looking beyond that what about the appointments of Labour donors to civil service roles. The new Labour government came under fire earlier this month for hiring Ian Corfield, a former banker and business adviser who made political donations to chancellor Rachel Reeves, to a senior role in the Treasury. Following criticism of the appointment, Corfield has opted to leave the paid government position and instead take on a role as a temporary, unpaid adviser to the Treasury, according to people briefed on the move. Former consultant Emily Middleton was also named a director-general in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology after she was seconded to the Labour party while it was in opposition. The firm where she was a partner, Public Digital, had offered secondments worth more than £65,000 to the team of Peter Kyle, shadow technology secretary at the time, including Middleton’s own position.

Corruption or Cronyism? You decide but you’ve got to admit it’s not great look.

Lord Alli seems to give a lot of money out for just a free pass to number 10?

Maybe he's just exceptionally generous to his friends.

 

[metalblue]

Lord Alli seems to give a lot of money out for just a free pass to number 10?

Maybe he's just exceptionally generous to his friends.

Perhaps, or perhaps he expects more. What about the donors getting jobs? Just good fortune?

 

[metalblue]

I don't think they are two seperate issues. The first ticket was for June of this year and a later on in August.

It is nonsense to pretend that this is unconnectred because Starmer was not PM in June. It was obvious to everyone in June - including everyone at the Premier League - that he would shortly be the next Prime Minister. And then there's the August tickets.

The government announced in July that it would be pressing ahead with the Football Regulation Bill and you honestly don't see any potential conflct of interest with the Premier League giving him £4,000 of free tickets to a concert?

Someone would have to be a VERY partisan pro-Labour to not see that this is "inappropriate", to say the least. It would get you sacked at most companies, I suggest.

EDIT: I reflected upon this after posting it. I am currently in sales, and for my job, I negotiate multi-million pound contracts with new and existing customers. To imagine that I could accept thousands of pounds worth of Taylor Swift tickets - some only for my wife - from one of the parties who would be impacted by the contract??? It's mind boggling. I wouldn't entertain doing so in a million years.

If nothing else, it demonstrates that Starmer has appallingly bad judgement on such matters.

Same. Like many, if not all of us fortunate enough to get offered anything, if I get offered external entertainment or gifts (rarely) I have to run it through my line manager and compliance at a minimum before accepting. Even if it’s is completely legal above board I may get told no because it doesn’t “look” good.

I guess you might say the firms we work for are more concerned about their reputation than successive British governments.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

Perhaps, or perhaps he expects more. What about the donors getting jobs? Just good fortune?

It was a job he seems to have been qualified for? But he no longer holds it.

 

[metalblue]

It was a job he seems to have been qualified for? But he no longer holds it.

Johnson is no longer PM so not sure that’s really as strong an argument as you think.

No idea if he was qualified. Was the job advertised? Who else applied? What was his CV like compared to others? etc etc.

I get it, you can’t criticise them and will die on every hill going.

 

[metalblue]

Reeves getting heckled at conference.

 

[Postman Pep]

They don't represent the working class. Starmer accepted labour's largest donation ever just before the election, from a tax haven-based hedge fund with shares in oil and arms. £4m.

Conveniently timed so it didn't have to be declared pre election .... something Keith has form for.


“During his bid to become leader of the Labour Party, Starmer refused to contemporaneously publish details of who had donated to his leadership campaign. His rivals, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy, agreed to share details of their donors in real-time, which they published. Starmer, however, decided only to declare his donations via his MP's register of interests, which created a significant lag between when Starmer accepted his donations and when they were made public.

“Labour members, as a result, had no idea at the time of voting that Starmer had been funded with large donations from the likes of wealthy millionaires like Martin Taylor and Sir Trevor Chinn and Baron Waheed Ali; the latter now at the centre of the furore about Starmer's acceptance of gratuities.”

Labour handed £4m from tax haven-based hedge fund

Quadrature’s donation is noteworthy not just for being Labour’s largest-ever, but for its timing ahead of election

www.opendemocracy.net

More on Lord Ali

 

[TinFoilHat]

Reeves might as well have Leonard Cohen playing behind her to make her speech less depressing.

Doubling down on austerity and expecting us to pay for the Tories spending rather than taxing the cunts that's profited from our national traumas of Brexit and COVID.