A Home Office minister has dismissed worries around the number of gifts the prime minister has accepted over the last five years.
Keir Starmer is in hot water this week after it emerged he has accepted more than £100,000 in freebies since 2019 – more than any other MP has declared – including seats in a corporate box to an Arsenal game.
But, speaking to broadcasters on Friday morning, minister Jess Phillips claimed she hasn’t “had a single email about” the issue.
Sky News presenter Anna Jones asked her: “Are you satisfied with his explanation for why it’s been necessary?”
Phillips said she was, and that Keir Starmer is “doing a good job”.
So Jones hit back: “You just don’t think it’s important at all?”
“It’s not that I don’t think it’s important at all!” Phillips spoke over Jones. “You have to consider how people in the country feel about things.
“I have to say nobody has mentioned it to me and I haven’t had a single email about it.
“I have had lots of emails about people not being able to get on a housing list, so I’d really really much rather focus on that and for Keir Starmer to focus on getting house-building going.”
“So you’re not concerned about how it looks when the government is having to introduce a policy where they scrap winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners and he’s got freebies and a corporate box at Arsenal?” Jones asked.
The government chose to restrict winter fuel payments earlier this month so only those on pension credit were entitled to it.
Ministers claimed it was necessary to follow through with the unpopular move because the Tories had left a ”£22bn black hole” in the government finances.
The Labour MP replied: “I always worry about how everything looks [but] those two things are completely separate things.
“Had he never been to watch the Arsenal, there would still be a £22bn black hole that had to be paid for.
“Of course I worry about how things look and I want people to feel like the government is having to make some very very difficult decisions, but fundamentally is working to make things better.”
Phillips also played down reports that Starmer’s chief of staff Sue Gray is receiving a larger salary than the PM himself during her morning media round.
She said there is an “obsession” with Gray in the media right now, but claimed she was an “amazing advocate” for tackling violence against women and girls.
“I really feel like No.10 has a grip over me and a grip over what they’re meant to be doing, which is trying to govern the country,” she told Radio 5 Live Breakfast.