Fears over 'Downing Street cover-up' as Keir Starmer dragged into donations scandal

Sir Keir Starmer must face a Parliamentary probe over a donations scandal linked to one of his key allies, the Tories have declared. The Conservatives have claimed the Prime Minister “failed to declare personal support and donations from Labour Together”, a key think tank that helped him seize power of Labour in 2020.

The think tank spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on polling and research that played an important role in Sir Keir's leadership campaign, it was claimed. But the Prime Minister did not include details of the support on his Parliamentary register of interests. Strict rules for MPs state that politicians must declare all “support in kind” worth more than £1,500.

Kevin Hollinrake, Conservative Party chairman, said: "This has all the hallmarks of yet another Downing Street cover-up.

“After the revelations that Morgan McSweeney hid donations to help install Keir Starmer as Labour leader, and the potential of criminal wrongdoing associated with that, now it emerges that Keir Starmer failed to declare the support he received from Labour Together – from secret polling, to help writing his speeches and behind-the-scenes campaigning.

“This latest scandal strikes at the heart of the Prime Minister’s judgement and integrity. He must come clean and be transparent with the British public about the true extent of his relationship with Labour Together and why this financial support was hidden from the authorities.”

The Electoral Commission found a series of breaches by Labour Together over almost £740,000 in donations and hit it with a £14,250 fine in September 2021.

The Tories have called for a police probe into the scandal.

Morgan McSweeney, who previously led the think tank, left his role in April 2020 to become a senior aide to Sir Keir in opposition and then in Government.

The Tories said leaked emails they had obtained suggested Mr McSweeney had attempted to cover up the late reporting of donations as an administrative error and sought to minimise publicity for the breach in the rules.

But in a letter to the Electoral Commission, the Conservatives said the implication was they "chose not to report those donations" to stop the then Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party knowing "who was bankrolling their secretive political campaigning, and to keep their work below the political radar".

The Tories suggested that once the Electoral Commission was investigating the case, "a false excuse of administrative errors was concocted to minimise the sanctions they faced and the bad publicity" while "Morgan McSweeney's name was airbrushed out of the picture".

A new book, chronicling Sir Keir's rise to power, revealed the Prime Minister’s relationship with Labour Together ramped up in 2019.

He met Steve Reed, now the Housing Secretary, in a restaurant at the Royal Court theatre to discuss a leadership bid – and Labour Together’s support.

Mr McSweeney and other senior figures from the think tank were then closely involved in Sir Keir's leadership campaign, it is claimed in Get In, by Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund.

And Jonathan Rutherford, who was among the founders of Labour Together, wrote much of Sir Keir’s first speech as Labour leader, it was claimed.

Other Labour politicians have declared donations from Labour Together, including Rachel Reeves, who declared “provision of research and writing services” in 2021 and 2022.