T he Labour peer at the centre of the donations row bailed out a baroness after she was found to have wrongly claimed £125,000 in the parliamentary expenses scandal. Lord Alli, a multimillionaire former banker and fashion entrepreneur, gave a £62,000 loan to Baroness Uddin more than a decade ago to help her repay the expenses after the Lords authorities ordered her to refund the taxpayer. Sir Keir Starmer would later announce that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which he ran at the time, would not pursue fraud charges against her.

The wrongful expenses claim was revealed in 2012 by The Sunday Times but has resurfaced 12 years on because of Alli’s newfound notoriety for donating gifts including clothes and glasses to the prime minister and.