Sir Keir Starmer’s team used Lord Alli’s Soho townhouse worth £4 million for election strategy meetings, it has emerged. The Georgian property in central London was used by senior aides and shadow ministers, including Pat McFadden, as well as by Sue Gray, Sir Keir’s chief of staff. It is the second London property lent by Lord Alli, the figure at the centre of the , for the use of the Prime Minister in the run-up to the election.
The Labour leader also had used ’s Covent Garden penthouse, worth £18 million, which he stayed in with his family for a month and a half during the campaign. Sir Keir said he used the property to let his son study for his GCSE exams “without being disturbed”. It later emerged that the property was used by the Prime Minister to make a broadcast during the pandemic in which he urged the public to work from home.
One source familiar with the strategy gatherings estimated they were held at the property roughly once every six weeks in the year build-up to the election campaign. A Number 10 source denied the meetings were that frequent. Downing Street does not believe the use of the property has to be declared in MP financial registrations since they did not amount to a personal benefit for Sir Keir.
It comes as The Telegraph can reveal a company chaired by Lord Alli gave almost £170,000 in support of Labour and individual MPs across the space of a decade. The peer made the donations through BM Creative Management Ltd. Lord Alli is listed on.