The majority of the British public already see the recently-elected Labour Party government as being beset by “sleaze” amid disclosures of lavish gifts given to cabinet members and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
The leftist government, which swept to power in July with a large majority but with only a little over a third of the vote, continues to struggle to convince the polity that it is an improvement over previous Tory governments, with six in ten voters (59 per cent) describing the Labour government as at least fairly “sleazy”, a YouGov survey found.
The pollster noted that while more voters continue to see the last Conservative Party governments as having been sleazy, at 77 per cent, YouGov stated “it is hardly a positive result” for Prime Minister Starmer and his government.
According to the survey, over half of Britons (53 per cent) feel Labour has not lived up to their own standards, while just 18 per cent of the public beleive the leftist party has behaved well since coming to power.
YouGov reported that “disappointment is fairly uniform” across supporters of different parties, with 45 per cent of Conservative and Liberal Democrat voters saying they thought Starmer’s government would have “behaved better than they have”. Even 42 per cent of Labour voters felt the same, while just 34 per cent say that the government has lived up to expectations.
The widespread perception of “sleaze” comes amid an early scandal for the Starmer government surrounding the personal gifts and hospitality given to senior members of the government from top Labour Party donors.
Starmer, for example, has taken in some £134,000 in hospitality and gifts from media mogul turned Labour peer Lord Waheed Alli since 2019. This year alone, Starmer was given £19,000 from Lord Alli for “work clothes” and designer glasses. The PM was also given use of the top donor’s £18 million Central London penthouse and his £4 million Soho townhouse.
While large gifts to politicians are prohibited in countries like the United States, in the United Kingdom, politicians are allowed to accept so-called “freebies” as long as they come from approved people or organisations and the donations are publicly declared.
Therefore, Starmer and his other members of his government, such as Deputy PM Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have claimed that they did nothing wrong by taking advantage of the apparent generosity of their donor class.
However, with the country continuing to struggle economically, and the Starmer government imposing austerity measures, such as cuts to winter fuel aid to elderly people, there has been backlash over the luxuries afforded to the leftist politicians in Westminster.
Unlike the United States, where large gift-giving to federal lawmakers is prohibited, politicians in Britain are allowed to accept gifts from individuals listed on a UK electoral register, or even from companies and some organisations registered in the country. They are not allowed to accept gifts from foreigner or companies registered in other countries.
The scandal prompted MP Rosie Duffield to defect from the leftist Labour Party last month to sit in parliament as an independent. Duffield accused the prime minister of lacking political instincts for failing to realise the bad optics of using his position to rack up luxury gifts while the nation struggles.
“How dare you take our longed-for victory, the electorate’s sacred and precious trust, and throw it back in their individual faces and the faces of dedicated and hardworking Labour MPs?! The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale,” the former Labour MP said.