Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Monday defended her acceptance of £7,500 of funding for clothing from a friend as a damaging row over donations stalks top Labour leaders.
It emerged last week that Ms Reeves along with Sir Keir Starmer and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner would no longer accept donations to pay for their clothes.
It came after the Financial Times reported that donations “in kind” to Ms Rayner and Ms Reeves listed in their registers of interests were also for clothing.
Ms Rayner received funding towards clothing from prominent Labour donor Lord Alli, while a donor called Juliet Rosenfeld provided funding for the Chancellor’s wardrobe in four instalments, the newspaper said.
Speaking on Times Radio, Ms Reeves said: “Juliet and me have been friends for a long time, and she said to me about a year-and-a-half ago ‘I want to help you in the election campaign and the thing I’d really like to do is make sure that for big events and for the campaign trail, you’re smart and well turned out’.
“I really appreciated that, she’s made a big difference to me.”
The Chancellor added: “This is something that we did during the election campaign to get ready for Government. It’s not something that I’m going to do in Government. I can understand that to a lot of people it looks a bit odd. I get that.
“But I do appreciate the support I’ve had from a number of donors to help me with research, with speech writing and also the support that Juliet gave me.”
The Chancellor also defended the hiring of a taxpayer-funded photographer by Ms Rayner’s Government department, following a report in the Daily Mail.
“All government departments under all governments have press officers and communications budgets,” Ms Reeves said. “It’s not a personal photographer.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said the photographer had been hired to chronicle the work of the department, not just Ms Rayner.
“Many government departments employ official photographers to share the work of the department and ministers with the public,” the department said.
“This is a Civil Service role and will be part of MHCLG’s communications team.”
Official photographers have long been a feature of the press work done by Government departments, including under the Conservatives in 10 Downing Street.
Organisations representing news photographers accused Boris Johnson of evading press scrutiny by only giving access at some key events to his own photographer.
On Sunday, Ms Rayner said she understood why people were “frustrated” and “angry” that figures including the PM had received thousands of pounds in gifts.
But she added these had been “a feature of our politics for a very long time”, arguing that donations were necessary because of the expense of running for office, and stressing the importance of transparency.
Labour has been battling to put to bed the row about Sir Keir and his wife Lady Victoria Starmer’s acceptance of gifts, including clothing, from Lord Alli.
Sir Keir has accepted around £39,000 from Lord Alli since December 2019.
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