Keir Starmer has said the row over him borrowing Labour donor Waheed Alli’s luxury flat for filming was “farcical” and that the public would come to their own judgments about his reasons for taking support from the peer. The prime minister sought to downplay the row over the flat when he was asked about his gifts from the Labour peer while on a trip to New York, after weeks of questions about receiving clothing , spectacles and temporary use of a £18m penthouse from Alli. He said there was nothing wrong with having used Alli’s flat for filming during the Covid pandemic, after questions about why he used the peer’s house rather than his own or his office.
“That was just part of a video we were putting out in relation to – I think it was during Covid. Anybody who thinks that I was pretending it was my own home – the idea that I’ve got union jacks by my fireplace at home and or that I would invite a bunch of you lot into my living room to have a look around. I mean, I think the idea that I was trying to pretend that it was my home is pretty farcical.
And, no, I’m not going to be inviting you in to film me in front of my fireplace. I’m very sorry, that’s about the last thing I’d do.” During a meeting with chief executives in New York at the apartment of the UK consul general, Hannah Young, he also appeared to joke about the row, saying: “I’d like to pretend this is my apartment to welcome you too, but I can’t, because Hannah’s already nabbed i.
