MPs have received more than £1 million in gifts since the general election. New analysis of the MPs’ Register of Interests shows 319 MPs have had freebies since July last year, including foreign travel, accommodation and tickets to sporting events and concerts.
Some 236 declared gifts from UK sources, totalling £477,539, while 144 said they had been on overseas trips paid for by donors, charities, think tanks or foreign governments, worth another £810,761. Sir Keir Starmer, who was at the centre of a freebies row in the months after the election, was the biggest recipient of hospitality from UK sources due to his regular attendance at Arsenal games.
The Prime Minister declared £11,170 worth of football tickets over the past year.
He has previously insisted that he is no longer able to sit in the stands because of security concerns, but has been offered a seat in the club directors’ box so he can continue to attend matches with his son.
The Prime Minister declared a total of £17,344 in hospitality and other gifts since the election, with other donations including tickets from Universal Music and the FA to see Taylor Swift and the loan of clothes to his wife.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage declared the highest value of gifts with a total of £98,709 over the past year.
The bulk of these took the form of flights and accommodation on a number of trips to the United States, paid for by Reform donor Christopher Harborne and party volunteer George Cottrell.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch declared just one gift – £14,350 from Tory donor Neil Record to cover work space, accommodation and hospitality for a series of meetings in Gloucestershire in March this year.
Some 49 MPs received free tickets to football matches in the past year, totalling almost £59,000.
Eight MPs received hospitality from the Lawn Tennis Association at Wimbledon in 2024, while golf’s R&A provided tickets for four MPs at the Open.
Another 49 MPs received tickets to awards ceremonies including the Baftas, the Brit Awards and the British Kebab Awards, while 23 were given tickets and hospitality for horse racing events, and 21 received tickets to concerts.
The most popular of those concerts were part of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, with nine MPs receiving free tickets totalling £14,628, mostly from the Premier League and the FA.
During the last election, Labour campaigned on a pledge to restore probity to public life after the scandals that had plagued the previous Conservative government.
Last year Sir Keir sought to toughen up transparency rules for ministers, introducing a new monthly register of gifts and hospitality for ministers rather than the previous quarterly releases.
He also changed the Ministerial Code in November to include the seven principles of public life directly in the rules and allow the independent adviser on ministerial standards to launch his own investigations.
But Alastair McCapra, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, warned the continued culture of gifts and hospitality in British politics risked creating a “full-blown crisis of legitimacy”.
He said: “At the heart of this credibility gap is the shadowy relationship between business and politics.
“The entrenched culture of gifts and hospitality in British politics creates the perception of corruption, and the suspicion of back doors to access are damaging a Labour Party that campaigned on promises of transparency, integrity and a break from the past.
“Political scandals thrive in the gaps between information and silence.
“If the Government and the business community are serious about building back trust, they must prioritise and accept a relationship that is transparent and accountable to the public.”