EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli's munificence knows no bounds as he gives Keir Starmer's minister £420...
for hand-crafted, leather-lined WELLIES By Richard Eden for The Daily Mail Published: 23:20, 20 September 2024 | Updated: 23:33, 20 September 2024 e-mail View comments Does Waheed Alli's munificence know no bounds? I ask because, as it emerges that the Labour peer has donated tens of thousands of pounds to seven Cabinet ministers, an intriguing photograph of an eighth – Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – comes to my attention. Taken last December, three months after he assumed his rural affairs role in opposition, it shows Reed at a Wiltshire farm, sporting a pair of wellies. Not, of course, the moulded PVC sort, but leather-lined 'Chasseur' boots, with full-length zip, costing a princely £420.
They are 'hand crafted by one single master boot maker', according to Le Chameau, the firm that makes them, one of whose directors is...
Lord Alli. Reed declines to comment but a chum confirms the wellies were indeed a gift from Alli. He claims that, at the time, they cost £270 while the threshold for declarations in the Register of Members' Interests is £300.
A handy gift when wading into the muck. A picture taken last December shows Steve Reed (right) at a Wiltshire farm, sporting a pair of wellies The wellies in question are leather-lined 'Chasseur' boots, with full-length zip, costing £420 Baby No2 on way for delig.