PM gives ‘human’ reason for accepting offer from Labour donor Waheed Alli and says no cash changed hands

Keir Starmer has defended borrowing an £18m penthouse flat from the Labour donor Waheed Alli during the election, saying he took the offer so that his son would have a place to study for his GCSEs without having to walk past journalists and protesters outside their family home.

The prime minister brought up the “human” reason for having moved his family out of his Kentish Town house, saying no cash changed hands as a result of the move.

He was pressed while attending the UN general assembly in New York on public opposition to him taking more than £100,000 of freebies in the form of tickets, clothes and accommodation.

Asked by Sky News whether his reputation had been undermined, Starmer talked about why he moved to the Covent Garden flat belonging to Lord Alli, a media businessman and Labour peer.

  • cygnusEnglish
    293·
    1 day ago

    Weeeeellll he borrowed it from a peer, so this isn’t as overtly bad as it may seem with that rather buried lede. For our American friends, this is as though the President’s son used an apartment lent to him by a Senator (of the same party as the President, no less). That’s arguably more of a co-worker relationship than anything, so I can absolutely see why they wouldn’t have though it improper. I myself am not sure that it is.

    • floofloofEnglish
      28·
      1 day ago

      For our American friends, this is as though the President’s son used an apartment lent to him by a Senator (of the same party as the President, no less).

      Senators are elected, aren’t they? Peers are given honours by the monarch, usually after a recommendation from the Prime Minister, and can sit in the House of Lords, unelected, and make decisions about legislation. A Labour peer is just a peer recommended to the monarch by a Labour PM. So Lord Alli is a businessman who received favours from the Labour Party, giving him unelected political influence, and he’s giving favours to a Labour PM in return.

      Seems quite different to me.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        83·
        1 day ago

        So Lord Alli is a businessman who received favours from the Labour Party, giving him unelected political influence, and he’s giving favours to a Labour PM in return.

        Which UK Law considers perfectly normal, legal, and good.

        So, there’s no problem, see?

      • cygnusEnglish
        35·
        1 day ago

        That’s true, but I don’t know of a comparable position in the US. Perhaps a “cabinet” member, like the Secretary of State?

        As to your point about favour-trading, that’s absolutely accurate, but I consider that more of an indictment of peerage in general. Within the bounds of the current system, for all its flaws, they are effectively colleagues, no?

        • floofloofEnglish
          9·
          1 day ago

          There isn’t a comparable position in the USA. But corruption has the same whiff everywhere. That said, this example seems relatively minor and harmless.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
            6·
            1 day ago

            There isn’t a comparable position in the USA.

            I might argue that the SCOTUS is at least approaching comparable. But then imagine Clarence Thomas letting Baron Trump borrow the RV he got from his billionaire sugar daddy Anthony Welters, executive VP at UnitedHealthCare.

            And then imagine Trump appointing Welters to an advisory committee at HHS. That’s in the ballpark of what we’re dealing with.

            • cygnusEnglish
              2·
              1 day ago

              The supreme court is an altogether different branch of government so that comparison isn’t accurate at all, especially since commonwealth countries also have supreme courts.

              • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                1 day ago

                The supreme court is an altogether different branch of government

                The British Parliamentary Ministerial system combines the Legislative and Executive branches. So even talking about “branches of government” goes out the window.

                commonwealth countries also have supreme courts

                They don’t have co-equal branches and their courts aren’t organized in the US Circuit model.

                But even that’s beside the point. What’s at issue is a lifetime appointee (who gained the position through bribery) continuing to bribe an elected official to be favorable towards his political position. It’s pure patronage.

                • cygnusEnglish
                  13·
                  1 day ago

                  The British Parliamentary Ministerial system combines the Legislative and Executive branches.

                  What leads you to believe this is accurate?