Wriggling Rachel Reeves today vowed not to take any more free gig tickets after a furious backlash.
The Chancellor insisted she ‘understands how people feel’ as she was grilled again on attending the Sabrina Carpenter concert with a family member.
Ms Reeves refused to accept she made a mistake over the £600 gift for the O2 stadium, and has dodged on whether she will make an equivalent donation to charity.
But in a marked shift for her previously defiant stance, she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘I don’t have any intention of doing this again.
‘I thought it was the right decision for my family on that occasion. But I do understand how people feel.’
Asked if that meant she would rule out all freebies in future, the Chancellor replied: ‘If it’s related to my job and it’s something that I need to do in my job, like I’m going to a formal dinner or a formal event, of course you have to accept hospitality.
‘But, look, I went with a family member. I’m not intending to take concert tickets in the future.
‘But, you know, it is a balancing act in my job to try and be a good parent, and also do my job, with some of the security challenges that I face in the job now.’
Ms Reeves was last year forced to promise not to accept any clothing as Chancellor after it was revealed she had taken £7,500 for outfits while in Opposition.
The minister has blamed security issues for taking the free tickets in a posh private box earlier this month.
At a Downing Street press conference yesterday following her Spring Statement, Ms Reeves said she was not even a fan of the Espresso singer, 25, and would have preferred being in ‘normal seats’ with a member of her family.
She has faced criticism, including from within the Cabinet, over her decision to attend.
Asked if she regretted accepting the tickets and if she will repay the cost, Ms Reeves told a press conference in Downing Street: ‘It may come as a surprise to some of you that I’m not personally a huge Sabrina Carpenter fan, being a 46-year-old woman, but a member of my family did want to go and see that concert.
‘I’m not in a position now that I can easily just go and sit in a concert,’ she told reporters this afternoon.
‘Some of the things that I might have been able to do in my everyday life in the past are not so easy now, and so I had advice that it would be better to be in a box, the owners of the O2 had a box, tickets that are not available to buy, and they said that I could go in there, and that was better for security reasons.
‘I do recognise that people think that that’s a bit odd but that’s the reason why I did that rather than just being in normal seats, which to be honest for me and my family, would have been a lot nicer and a lot easier.’
On Tuesday housing minister Matthew Pennycook said it was ‘inappropriate’ to take free tickets to gigs, insisting: ‘If I want to go to a concert at the O2 I’ll pay for it.’
That came after Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander effectively cut her fellow Cabinet minister adrift saying she did not have ‘anything further to add’ and stressing she had not taken any tickets personally.
Downing Street also gave a lukewarm endorsement, saying the Prime Minister ‘supports all of his ministers making their own judgements’ over hospitality.
Sir Keir Starmer, who received £32,000 for clothes from Labour donor Lord Alli, had to pay back thousands of pounds in gifts, including tickets to see Taylor Swift.