The Labour Party will meet in the coming days at a congress without the post-election euphoria, overshadowed by controversies over ‘gifts’ and presents to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The Labour Party will meet in the coming days at a congress without the post-election euphoria, overshadowed by the controversies over the “gifts” and presents to the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and internal discontent over budget cuts and the salaries of advisers.
The congress, which begins on Sunday in Liverpool and runs until Wednesday, is the first since the historic victory in the general elections of July 4, from which the ‘Labour’ emerged with a large absolute majority.
But just three months after returning to power, euphoria was replaced by bitterness.
In recent days, anonymous sources from the government, parliamentary group and party have been criticising the leader and chief of staff, Sue Gray, and expressing their disagreements in the British media.
On Wednesday, the BBC reported that Gray has a higher salary than the prime minister, following complaints from ministers’ aides that they now earn less than when they worked for the Labour Party.
The chief of staff’s salary is at the top of a pay scale for political advisers, which has been increased since the election and in which the government has guaranteed it has not interfered.
Public revelations also emerged about numerous donations of clothing, glasses, accommodation and event tickets to Starmer and his wife, Victoria, the value of which caused outrage among campaigners.
Sky News reported that Starmer had declared “gifts, benefits and hospitality” worth more than £100,000 (€120,000) since December 2019, most of it to Waheed Alli, a millionaire member of the House of Lords and long-time Labour supporter.
Among the ‘gifts’ Starmer received, both as leader of the opposition and as prime minister, were thousands of euros worth of tickets to watch Arsenal football club matches in a reserved area.
“I’m a big Arsenal fan. I can’t be in the stands for safety reasons,” he explained, insisting that he has a season ticket and that accepting the club’s invitations saves money on taxpayer protection.
Speaking anonymously to the Daily Telegraph, several Labour MPs accused him of “hypocrisy” and urged him to stop accepting offers.
“I think that by trying to push the issue and justify it, it is making things worse,” former MP and now House of Lords member Harriet Harman admitted in a Sky News podcast.
The prime minister denied any wrongdoing and played down alleged dissent within the party, saying he was “fully in control” of the government and the party.
“I am focused and every day my message to the team is exactly the same, which is that we have to deliver what we promise. We were elected on the basis of a huge mandate to deliver change and I am determined to do that,” Starmer told the BBC on Thursday.
The internal discontent over the situation was compounded by internal discord over the cut in the winter heating subsidy granted to pensioners, the continued limit on family subsidy to two children per family and the overly pessimistic tone regarding the future budget.
Several Labour MPs have been suspended and some unions want to discuss the issues in Parliament, rejecting an austerity policy similar to that of the Conservative Party when it was in power for 14 years.
Faced with growing unpopularity in the polls, The Guardian newspaper warned in an editorial that “something is wrong” in the government and that “it needs to be resolved quickly.”
“This is not a fatal moment for Sir Keir’s tenure. But it is a failure from which it is crucial to learn,” he stressed.
Source: Observadora
