Keir Starmer: The New King of the Corporate Freebies

You do know why record amounts of big business cash is flowing freely into the Labour Party’s campaign coffers, don’t you? 

You don’t think it’s Starmer’s endearing personality that’s seeing literal Tory donors handing over their hoarded wealth to the neoliberal dream, right? 

Or maybe, just maybe you know Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves attends private meetings with Tory donors to reassure them that nothing will change under a Labour regime. 

You see, it’s simply an investment to huge corporations. They invest money that belongs to the working classes into an interest that will recycle the cash into something that resembles access to politicians and influence in decision making. 

The Labour Party of today embraces corporate monopoly power while shitting all over the poor and working classes that dare to seek a little bit more than just the crumbs from the shareholders tables. 

While Reeves and Starmer drag themselves from one boardroom to the next like contestants from The Apprentice the Labour Party has been busy working out how to water-down their commitments on worker’s rights such as their abandonment of pledges to both full time and gig economy workers. 

Be in no doubt, Keir Starmer will get on his knees and kiss the unsightly backsides of the obscenely rich and powerful until the carpet burns run deep.

The Toryfication of the Labour Party is as near to complete as it can possibly be, but the millionaire KC Starmer will continue to find new ways to keep his paymasters satisfied with their investments. 

Let’s take a look at the growing market for political corporate freebies.

Remember, the previous Labour leader didn’t believe in selling out to the highest bidder but this fraud Starmer cannot carve up the Labour Party’s ideals any quicker if he tried. 

Keir Starmer’s recent freebies include tickets to a Coldplay concert in Manchester worth £698 by a concert promoter, while the Jockey Club gave him a box and hospitality at the Epsom Derby worth £3,716.

You know who sits on the board of the Jockey Club, right? One Baroness Dido Harding, the one that lost billions of pounds from the public purse somewhere down the back of her sofa. 

Seriously though, why would anyone give Starmer free tickets to a Coldplay concert if they’re not wanting something in return, unless they want the Labour leader to be joined by other sell-outs of an entirely different kind? 

Starmer is the new undisputed king of junkets, a KJ rather than a KC if you like. 

You also have to wonder why the tech giants Google felt the need to give Starmer a £380 dinner freebie, at Davos. 

Starmer has also had freebies from *takes deep breath* companies such as Just Eat, the grocery delivery app GETIR, online retail business the Hut Group, construction giants Mulalley and Co on TWENTY EIGHT occasions, various multi millionaires and gambling giants, and the gifts have included hospitality at Chelsea and Tottenham Premier League matches, ANOTHER Coldplay concert, numerous days at the races, an Adele concert, and nights in luxury hotels. 

In fact, Starmer’s freebie frenzy has been worth around £30,000 - and that includes £12,000 worth of football tickets since last May.

Put simply, Keir Starmer has accepted more free tickets to events such as sports matches, concerts and parties than the combined total of every other Labour leader since records began in 1997. 

A huge HT to Open Democracy for unearthing the sheer gluttony of Keir Starmer.

It’s not just Keir Starmer that’s opened up to the culture of political freebies, as I’m sure you can imagine. 

Starmer’s staff - eight of them - also accepted freebies, ranging from tickets to see Harry Styles and attendance at the BRIT music awards and Doncaster races from a range of big tech firms and music industry lobby groups.

Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Blairite disciple Wes Streeting, was gifted hospitality worth more than a grand at Hay festival courtesy of the broadcaster Sky and on top of that he received £600 worth of tickets to the opera at Glyndebourne by a lobbying and public affairs company, FGS Global. 

Another Shadow Minister, Jonathan Reynolds, accepted more than £3,000 worth of hospitality at the Glastonbury festival and the tickets were paid for by none other than Google. 

To be clear, they are doing absolutely nothing wrong providing the freebie is declared within thirty days - if it has a value of more than £300. As you can imagine, many of the freebies are worth £295, thus avoiding the need to declare it. 

I think we call this shit legitimate corruption, and both main political party’s are milking the handouts for every penny that they can. 

Earlier this year the Tory MP Scott Benton was filmed by undercover reporters admitting to taking numerous £295 giveaways. He said: 

“You’d be amazed at the number of times I’ve been to races and the ticket comes to £295.” 

No Scott, we’re not amazed, just pissed off. 

These freebies will leave MPs even more open to influence from their sponsors, and is it really appropriate to be taking thousands and thousands of pounds worth of free hospitality that would never be available to 99.9% of us during the worst cost of living crisis in most of our lifetimes? 

Did you know, the only freebie Jeremy Corbyn ever received was a free ticket to Glastonbury? And that was only because he was invited to speak on the Pyramid stage. 

Keir Starmer promised to change the way politics is done. He told each and every one of us that “another future is possible”. 

But the future really doesn’t look much different to me because it is a future of a continuation of right-wing government. 

Sure, you’ll get the Tories out, but you should’ve done that six years ago, and we wouldn’t even be having this recurring discussion. 

Starmer’s willingness to accept so many freebies makes so very little sense to me. Why not take the moral high ground and say “thanks for the freebie, I’ll donate the equivalent value to charity”? 

Even Tony Blair managed that much. 

Keir Starmer’s willingness to sell Labour’s soul to the highest bidder has never been so apparent, and his junket obsession is a clear indication of the Labour leader’s intention to start as he means go on - until there’s nothing left of the Labour Party to sell.

Until next time, 

Rachael 

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