DAILY MAIL COMMENT: The moral failings of a pious premier By Daily Mail Comment Published: 01:00 BST, 27 September 2024 | Updated: 01:11 BST, 27 September 2024 e-mail View comments Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive. Sir Walter Scott coined that couplet, but some will consider it very appropriate for Sir Keir Starmer . In opposition, he portrayed himself as the holier-than-thou scourge of Tory venality and avarice.
How hollow that rings now. The embattled Prime Minister faces serious questions over his voracious appetite for freebies from friends in high places and taxpayer-funded expenses. Why, after it emerged he had recorded a hypocritical work-from-home message from Labour donor Lord Alli's £18 million luxury penthouse during Covid, did he say his visit was a 'one-off'? We know it wasn't.
Why didn't he declare this perk to the parliamentary authorities (he also failed to declare Lord Alli's donation of clothes for Lady Starmer)? Was this a mere oversight – or an attempt to conceal the gift? In opposition, Sir Keir Starmer portrayed himself as the holier-than-thou scourge of Tory venality and avarice. How hollow that rings now Labour peer Lord Alli (pictured) paid for thousands of pounds of suits and spectacles for the Prime Minister among more than £500,000 in donations to Labour And was it really necessary, when Director of Public Prosecutions, to rack up three times more in travel expenses than his successor? Despite his denunciations.
