Starmer was so pious over Boris’ wallpaper & now he’s accepting party frocks for his wife… he should be very careful --[Reported by Umva mag]

ALMOST all Prime Ministers get a taste of the high life on the international stage after eventually realising it’s far more appealing than the domestic drudgery of Westminster. But no duck has taken to that water as quickly as Sir Keir Starmer — who was noticeably less snappy at questions about Ukraine and Israel than winter fuel payments when chatting to hacks at 35,000ft. A row erupted over clothes given to Sir Keir Starmer’s wife Victoria by a Labour donor PAWhy Starmer needs the charity of another man to dress his wife looks frankly weird[/caption] Avalon.redLord Alli raised eyebrows this summer with £20,000 of centrist dad clothes and glasses for the PM[/caption] The PM was on his second trip to the United States in as many months, trying to build his reputation as a foreign policy guy after a career focused only on the law. And with a third trip to America pencilled in for the week after next, Starmer is certainly racking up the air miles. After a quick day at Donny races with his missus — where some punters were in full throat with their booing — he was back on the plane to Rome last night for good measure, building on dashes to Paris and Berlin last month. And this autumn is littered with summits in far-flung places like Brazil, Samoa and Azerbaijan. At this rate, he is going to spend almost as long on his private jet as he will at his desk. Leaving aside the hypocrisy of the fact that Labour spent the last few years lambasting ministers for using the very same plane Starmer has so quickly come to love, there are other elephant traps for Premiers who grow fonder of first class than case work. Boris Johnson famously landed back from a gruelling trip addressing back-to-back Commonwealth, Nato and G7 gatherings — where he was lauded over Ukraine — only to be out on his ear four days later. There must have been a grim irony for Starmer as he touched down from the White House, bathed in praise for the apparent vim he is bringing to the Western alliance (albeit from a lame duck Joe Biden), only to find another sleaze row blow up in his face. Just as the PM has taken to the jet set stuff quickly, it feels like this Labour Government has got to the “Why the hell did they think that was ever acceptable?” stage just as fast. Party-frock-gate, as some have attempted to brand it already, sees the man once dubbed Mr Rules find himself having to spin as an “oversight” why he secretly took thousands of pounds worth of luxury clothes for his wife from an increasingly mysterious Labour donor. Lord Alli had already raised eyebrows this summer with £20,000 of centrist dad clothes and glasses for the PM, and had to give back his No10 pass used to entertain fellow Labour backers in the Downing Street garden. But this development is deeply odd. Why Starmer — who lives rent free in No10, doesn’t have to pay school fees or even for petrol, owns a big house in North London and earns £166,000 a year — needs the charity of another man to dress his wife looks frankly weird. And they are going to need a better defence for doing it in secret than the one offered up yesterday by David Lammy, who said she needs pretty dresses to make the UK look good on the world stage — and the First Lady of the United States has a budget for this stuff. Firstly, that is simply not true as there is no such fund. Grim irony And secondly, pull the other one, Foreign Secretary, it’s got bells on. While the numbers involved may be relatively small in the grand scale of sleaze stories, it has long legs simply because Starmer was so damn pious as Leader of the Opposition, slamming similar late registrations of donations and prosecuting Boris Johnson’s wallpaper gifts with the zeal of a Monty Python witch-hunter. Yet again, it is the perfect example of the man who stood on the steps of Downing Street promising that trust in politics could only be “healed by actions, not words”, speaking with a forked tongue. Chatting to journalists on the plane about Britain’s declining birth rate, Starmer insisted: “I’ve spent my whole time saying I’m not going to tell people how to live their lives. I’m not going to start by dictating whether they should or shouldn’t have children.” Nice words, yet the actions of his nannying Government are dictating where people can smoke, what they can eat and even which adverts they can watch on TV. Oh and fire whichever adviser told you that taking the dresses was OK. Basic own goal Starmer sounded at best deferential when batting away questions about his all-powerful super-aide Sue Gray, telling journalists: “I’m not going to talk behind her back.” The one-time Whitehall ethics guru was meant to help on his mission to clean up politics, but the actions are not matching the words — and this one was a very basic o

Sep 19, 2024 - 18:11

Starmer was so pious over Boris’ wallpaper & now he’s accepting party frocks for his wife… he should be very careful --[Reported by Umva mag]

ALMOST all Prime Ministers get a taste of the high life on the international stage after eventually realising it’s far more appealing than the domestic drudgery of Westminster.

But no duck has taken to that water as quickly as Sir Keir Starmer — who was noticeably less snappy at questions about Ukraine and Israel than winter fuel payments when chatting to hacks at 35,000ft.

an advertisement for emperor 's new clothing by lord alli — A row erupted over clothes given to Sir Keir Starmer’s wife Victoria by a Labour donor

a man and a woman standing in front of an exit sign

Why Starmer needs the charity of another man to dress his wife looks frankly weird[/caption]

Lord Alli raised eyebrows this summer with £20,000 of centrist dad clothes and glasses for the PM[/caption]

The PM was on his second trip to the United States in as many months, trying to build his reputation as a foreign policy guy after a career focused only on the law.

And with a third trip to America pencilled in for the week after next, Starmer is certainly racking up the air miles.

After a quick day at Donny races with his missus — where some punters were in full throat with their booing — he was back on the plane to Rome last night for good measure, building on dashes to Paris and Berlin last month.

And this autumn is littered with summits in far-flung places like Brazil, Samoa and Azerbaijan.

At this rate, he is going to spend almost as long on his private jet as he will at his desk.

Leaving aside the hypocrisy of the fact that Labour spent the last few years lambasting ministers for using the very same plane Starmer has so quickly come to love, there are other elephant traps for Premiers who grow fonder of first class than case work.

Boris Johnson famously landed back from a gruelling trip addressing back-to-back Commonwealth, Nato and G7 gatherings — where he was lauded over Ukraine — only to be out on his ear four days later.

There must have been a grim irony for Starmer as he touched down from the White House, bathed in praise for the apparent vim he is bringing to the Western alliance (albeit from a lame duck Joe Biden), only to find another sleaze row blow up in his face.

Just as the PM has taken to the jet set stuff quickly, it feels like this Labour Government has got to the “Why the hell did they think that was ever acceptable?” stage just as fast.

Party-frock-gate, as some have attempted to brand it already, sees the man once dubbed Mr Rules find himself having to spin as an “oversight” why he secretly took thousands of pounds worth of luxury clothes for his wife from an increasingly mysterious Labour donor.

Lord Alli had already raised eyebrows this summer with £20,000 of centrist dad clothes and glasses for the PM, and had to give back his No10 pass used to entertain fellow Labour backers in the Downing Street garden.

But this development is deeply odd.

Why Starmer — who lives rent free in No10, doesn’t have to pay school fees or even for petrol, owns a big house in North London and earns £166,000 a year — needs the charity of another man to dress his wife looks frankly weird.

And they are going to need a better defence for doing it in secret than the one offered up yesterday by David Lammy, who said she needs pretty dresses to make the UK look good on the world stage — and the First Lady of the United States has a budget for this stuff.

Firstly, that is simply not true as there is no such fund.

Grim irony

And secondly, pull the other one, Foreign Secretary, it’s got bells on.

While the numbers involved may be relatively small in the grand scale of sleaze stories, it has long legs simply because Starmer was so damn pious as Leader of the Opposition, slamming similar late registrations of donations and prosecuting Boris Johnson’s wallpaper gifts with the zeal of a Monty Python witch-hunter.

Yet again, it is the perfect example of the man who stood on the steps of Downing Street promising that trust in politics could only be “healed by actions, not words”, speaking with a forked tongue.

Chatting to journalists on the plane about Britain’s declining birth rate, Starmer insisted: “I’ve spent my whole time saying I’m not going to tell people how to live their lives. I’m not going to start by dictating whether they should or shouldn’t have children.”

Nice words, yet the actions of his nannying Government are dictating where people can smoke, what they can eat and even which adverts they can watch on TV.

Oh and fire whichever adviser told you that taking the dresses was OK.

Basic own goal

Starmer sounded at best deferential when batting away questions about his all-powerful super-aide Sue Gray, telling journalists: “I’m not going to talk behind her back.”

The one-time Whitehall ethics guru was meant to help on his mission to clean up politics, but the actions are not matching the words — and this one was a very basic own goal.

Be careful, PM. All the backslapping in the world won’t save you if the voters back home conclude you’re a phoney.

HE was once dubbed the “heir to Blair”, but I hear David Cameron’s barnet was his secret diplomatic weapon.

When sent to Mar-a-Lago in a bid to woo Donald Trump in the dying days of the last Government, Lord Dave made quite an impression on the coiffured Presidential hopeful.

“I love your hair,” The Don repeatedly told him over their dinner, asking other guests, “Doesn’t he have great hair?”.

And his advice to the ex-PM turned former Foreign Secretary?

“Run again, it’s never too late for a comeback. Run again!”

IT’S the most powerful and secret group in government – and it now gathers more than ever as conflict rages in the Middle East and Sir Keir Starmer grapples with Putin’s threats of World War Three.

I can reveal the National Security Council of spy chiefs and top brass is meeting every Tuesday after Cabinet.

a woman standing on a balcony with a brick building in the background

Sue Gray has been handed a permanent seat on the National Security Council[/caption]

a man in a suit and tie has a lanyard around his neck that says ' bbc ' on it

Cabinet Office boss Pat McFadden has also been granted the golden ticket[/caption]

The Whitehall bunker gathering used to be ad-hoc, but the PM has insisted on a weekly audience with the heads of MI6, MI5, GCHQ, the Joint Intelligence Committee and Armed Forces.

Starmer is joined by the Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, Defence Secretary and, intriguingly, his all-seeing right-hand woman Sue Gray who has been handed a permanent seat on the top committee.

While it is not unusual for a No10 chief of staff to drop into the meeting on a big day, a permanent seat at the table is yet another sign of Gray’s dominance in the Starmer Government.

Cabinet Office boss Pat McFadden has also been granted the golden ticket.

A pretty good indicator of where the power lies in this administration – McFadden is the Deputy Prime Minister in all but title.

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