LABORATORIES are facing a fresh row after they offered businesses breakfast with the business secretary in exchange for £30,000.
The party invited bosses to the posh restaurant for a “rare opportunity” to “gain insight” from Jonathan Reynolds in exchange for a meal sponsorship.
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Labor faces fresh row after offering businesses breakfast with Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds in return for £30,000Credit: Zenpix
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Sir Keir and Lady Victoria were gifted tickets to a Taylor Swift concertCredit: instagram
Those willing to cough up their croissants have been offered “distinct benefits” at the exclusive event – limited to just ten tickets.
For £15,000 they were offered a photo shoot with the minister, but for a full £30,000 they had to choose who could come to the “dynamic meeting of business minds”.
Our exposure comes as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer battles for money over access allegations over his biggest free donor Lord Alli, who he gave a pass to Downing Street.
In a presentation prepared by Labour’s commercial team and emailed yesterday, invitees to Manchester’s The Ivy restaurant were promised a “rare opportunity to gain insight, network and exchange ideas between peers and a government minister”.
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It adds: “We have carefully prepared the package it offers [sic] special benefits, ensuring your brand receives optimal exposure and engagement during the event.”
The invitation was distributed to the companies by Liam Didsbury, who until recently was the Labor Party director for the North West.
An ‘awkwardly worded’ claim
After working for the party for more than 12 years, he founded lobbying firm IEI Group, but yesterday insisted the business event was organized by the party, not his company.
His CV boasts numerous by-election victories and organizing the launch of Sir Keir’s manifesto in June, as well as a “well-established network” in government.
Sir Keir Starmer ‘fast with anger’ defends stay in Lord Alli’s £18million penthouse
Labor sources confirmed that the call was genuine, but said that although it was part of a business engagement, it was awkwardly worded.
When asked by The Sun, allies of Mr Reynolds said he would no longer be involved.
A Labor spokesman said: “He was completely oblivious and is not coming.”
Shadow minister Andrew Griffiths warned: “This is a clear bid to bend the ear of the business minister to government policy.”
He added: “There are proper channels through which companies can engage with the government on policy matters, but this is something entirely different and will not appear in any public record.
“Labour has been in power for less than 100 days, but we can already add ‘cash for croissants’ to ‘glasses passes’ to the growing list of scandals engulfing this government.”
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Labor has faced weeks of cash over access allegations after Sir Keir received tens of thousands of freebies from his friend Lord Alli.
In a series of so-called “glasses passes”, a Labor peer has been forced to return the Downing Street access card he received after donating suits and expensive glasses to the prime minister.
Sir Keir also stayed in the business’ luxury London penthouse during the general election – and questions remain about exactly what role Lord Alli played in Labour’s election campaign.
To try to quell the growing row, Sir Keir this week agreed to return more than £6,000 in donations and said he was tightening rules on gifts to priests.
But the Tories were quick to point out the hypocrisy of his freeloading after repeated promises to clean up politics ahead of the July election.
Labor was also forced to return donations in the early days of Tony Blair’s government in 1997 after it was revealed that then F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone had given the party £1m before the sport was exempted from a ban on tobacco advertising.
‘ACCESS FEE’ STORMS
Author: Harry Cole
FIRST, it was jobs in the civil service for pajtas, and then it was “Passes for glasses”.
Next up were Miss and Swift dresses on Taylor tickets.
Now self-proclaimed slobber Sir Keir Starmer has been hit with “cash for croissants”.
I’m sure it’s expensive to have breakfast at The Ivy, but £30,000 to sit with a cabinet minister stinks.
And what are the “distinct benefits” promised to those with such deep pockets in exchange for their early morning gains?
I feel a bit sorry for Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds – he’s obviously been stitched up like a fresh dump truck here.
There is no indication that he was aware that he was being pimped to the highest bidder and that his greedy party apparatchiks had failed him badly.
The speed with which he backed out of attending this event lends credence to his insistence that he was unaware of this tongue-in-cheek speech from Labor.
But such an expense would never have been afforded to a Tory minister under the last government.
I don’t make the rules.
Sir Keir Starmer set them up when he promised to be whiter than whiter and do things differently.
Selling access to ministers is unethical at best, but also presents major problems with the Ministerial Code: how many similar events have already happened?
No doubt Labor will scream in response that this is no different to the kind of fraud perpetrated by those evil Tories, but that misses the point.
Starmer promised a new era, he promised to be different.
He promised that the days of sleaze were over.
But I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… Here we have a man who stood on the steps of Downing Street promising that confidence in politics can only be “healed by deeds, not words”, using a forked tongue.
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Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner entertains in the DJ booth at a club in Ibiza while on a free holidayCredit: Instagram
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Sir Keir and Foreign Secretary David Lammy enjoy free tickets to a Tottenham Hotspur match
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Source: HIS Education