Cabinet ministers faced pressure to repay thousands of pounds in tickets for Taylor Swift and Glastonbury concerts. Government minister Sarah Jones admitted on Thursday there were questions over for “what purpose” politicians had accepted gifts and hospitality. Downing Street announced on Wednesday that he received since entering Number 10 after a row over ministerial donations.
The Prime Minister is covering the cost of six Taylor Swift tickets, four to the races and a clothing rental agreement with a high-end designer favoured by his wife, Lady Victoria Starmer. It comes after Sir Keir and other Cabinet members, who vowed to “clean up” British politics, faced weeks of criticism for accepting tens of thousands of pounds worth of freebies from wealthy donors. But the Prime Minister’s decision put the spotlight onto more than a dozen ministers who have accepted what many in the public see as freebies.
Industry minister Ms Jones, MP for Croydon West, was grilled on Times Radio over Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson receiving two tickets with a value of £522 for a Taylor Swift concert in August and whether she would repay that after the PM’s decision. “People will make up their minds what they do,” she said, with a number of other ministers having also accepted Taylor Swift tickets. Ms Jones stressed that what MPs, who are now ministers, had done “wasn’t wrong in that no rules were broken”.
But she told Times Radio: “We are looking now at those rule.
