Starmer initially failed to declare money towards clothing from Lord Alli

Sir Keir Starmer initially failed to declare money towards clothing he received from Lord Alli, the Labour donor, it has emerged.

The Prime Minister originally recorded the donation, worth £16,200, in April as “private support for the office of the leader of the opposition”.

But a month later, his office updated the register of members’ financial interests to say the money was for “work clothing, value £16,200”, The Financial Times reported. Sir Keir also moved the section in which the donation was recorded from “any other support” to “gifts, benefits and hospitality”.

It follows the revelation that he had originally broken parliamentary rules by not declaring Lord Alli’s gifts of money towards clothing for his wife.

Andy Carter, a former Tory MP who was a member of the House of Commons standards committee, said there were “serious questions to be answered about why the gift was not registered accurately in the first place”.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “The plot continues to thicken with regards to these donations to the PM. Sunlight is always the best form of disinfectant, but these edits suggest the Government is yet to realise that.”

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said Sir Keir was advised to change the record after more information was requested about the nature of the support he had received from Lord Alli, adding that there was “no suggestion of any wrongdoing”. Sir Keir’s team “acted in good faith at every step” regarding the registration of gifts, he said.

On Thursday morning, Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, said taking hospitality tickets was “not a perk of the job, it’s a part of the job”.

He told Times Radio: “I can tell you, having been a secretary of state for two months, pretty much every waking hour of it is spent working. And if people get the chance for a little bit of relaxation as part of that, again, I’ve no problem or objection to that.”

The MPs’ code of conduct states that MPs “should not” record in the register “donations or gifts which are intended to provide personal benefit” under the category of “any other support”. It also states that “gifts such as clothing or jewellery” should be recorded as gifts, with information provided on their nature and value.

Earlier this year, Sir Keir broke parliamentary rules by originally failing to record clothing worth more than £5,000 given to Lady Starmer by the peer in the MPs’ register. He updated the register when he became aware that he needed to declare gifts given to his wife.