The Prime Minister has been on the back foot over why his biggest personal donor, Lord Alli, who has gifted him clothes and nearly £2,500 worth of spectacles, was granted an exclusive Downing Street security pass.
At his ‘state of the nation’ speech yesterday, the Prime Minister defended the access-all-areas pass as he admitted for the first time that the Labour peer had been doing ‘transition work’ for the Government.
But there has still been no answer as to who approved the unusual arrangement, with Sir Keir and his chief-of-staff, Sue Gray, both in the spotlight.
He also dismissed as Tory smears the growing cronyism allegations over party staffers and donors being given top civil service jobs, rejecting calls for an inquiry.
Last night shadow paymaster general John Glen said: ‘It is interesting to see Sir Keir wax lyrical about standards in public life seemingly oblivious to the cronyism scandal engulfing his Government.
‘If Starmer was so committed to honesty, transparency and proper process, why won’t he answer the questions before him?
‘Sunlight is the best disinfectant. He can dither and delay no longer, we need the answers which clear up the murkiness surrounding Labour’s cronies and fast.’
In his first major speech since the election, Sir Keir stood in the Downing Street garden and drew a contrast between the lockdown-breaking parties held there under the Tories and his new ‘Government for you’. He pledged to ‘root out 14 years of rot’ and repeatedly said he would be honest with the public.
But he was then asked by reporters if, given his earlier words, he would explain the recent appointments and say why Lord Alli had been given a Downing Street pass last month.
Sir Keir said: ‘I am absolutely determined to restore honesty and integrity to government because that is core to ensuring that people appreciate that politics can be a force for good.
‘One of the reasons people have been disillusioned, disaffected in recent years is because they can’t see politics as a force for good.’
He added: ‘If you take Lord Alli, he is a long-term donor and contributor to the Labour Party. He was doing some transition work with us. He had a pass for a short time to do that work. The work finished and he has not got a pass. That is the state of affairs.’
Asked if Sir Laurie Magnus, Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests, should carry out a review given the sleaze claims, the PM replied: ‘These allegations and accusations are coming from the very people that dragged our country down in the first place, so you will forgive me if I take that approach to it.
‘We are going to fix the foundations, we have got to do it at speed and I am determined to have the right people in the right places to allow us to get on with that job.
‘I am enormously aware how big a task this is and how we have to move at pace, and that is why we are getting the best people into the best jobs. But I am not going to take lectures on this from the people who dragged our country so far down in the last few years.’
Earlier the Labour Party chairman had refused to say who authorised Lord Alli’s pass giving him unrestricted access to No 10, amid suspicions it may have been Sir Keir’s powerful chief of staff, former senior civil servant Ms Gray.
Ellie Reeves told LBC: ‘I’m not involved in that process of issuing passes. I’ve got every confidence that all rules were followed. As I understand it, Lord Alli no longer has a pass, but did for a few weeks after the election.’
Former Labour MP Bill Rammell urged the Government to be more open about its appointments.
He told GB News: ‘What the Government needs to do is to own this, be upfront about what it’s doing, why it’s making the appointments, and explain them very clearly.’
He admitted Lord Alli’s pass was ‘more challenging in terms of perception, if not substance’ and urged: ‘The Government needs to explain, very quickly, why he got the pass.’
Tory frontbencher Andrew Griffith demanded an investigation by the ministerial watchdog into the cronyism claims.
Former No 10 aide Henry Newman said the admission by Sir Keir that Lord Alli had been doing ‘transition work’ was significant, given the Government’s previous insistence that the millionaire TV mogul had been having only political meetings with no civil servants present.
He wrote on Twitter/X: ‘Transition work is about operation of Government. What status did Lord Alli have? Transition work is not just politics – it’s government.
‘Was Lord Alli meeting civil servants? Was he in discussions about policy? Or new ministerial appointments?’
No 10 sources insisted last night there was no contradiction between the different explanations of his activities in Downing Street.