Streeting’s £20k fundraiser with McKellen hosted at Lord Alli penthouse

A third Cabinet minister used one of Lord Alli’s homes, it has emerged, leaving Sir Keir Starmer facing growing questions about his closeness to the Labour donor.

Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, hosted a fundraising event at Lord Alli’s London home where the guests included Sir Ian McKellen. Mr Streeting declared the value of the event as £4,600, which included the cost of drinks and catering paid for by Lord Alli.

The event, which was co-hosted by fellow Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, raised £20,000 in donations for the two MPs.

It raises fresh questions about the extent to which Lord Alli, a media entrepreneur, made properties available to Labour MPs, after disclosures about Sir Keir’s repeated use of the £18 million penthouse also used by Mr Streeting and Angela Rayner’s use of a flat in New York.

Lord Alli bought the Covent Garden flat in January 2020, three weeks after Sir Keir announced his bid to become leader of the Labour Party.

The Prime Minister has been urged to provide more details about a six-week stay at the flat during the general election campaign, amid suggestions he could have fallen foul of electoral law.

Mr Streeting hosted a high-powered reception at the property in March 2022, prompting speculation in Labour circles at the time that he was preparing for a leadership bid in case Sir Keir stood down for any reason. The 20 to 30 guests included Lord Cashman, the former EastEnders actor, and Linda Riley, the LGBT rights activist.

At the time Mr Streeting said Sir Keir’s office was “fully aware of the event”.

Ms Leadbeater, who is the MP for Batley and Spen and the sister of the murdered MP Jo Cox, split the money raised at the event equally with Mr Streeting.

A spokesman for Ms Leadbeater said: “It was all declared at the time and it was perfectly legitimate.”

A spokesman for Mr Streeting said: “This was declared years ago. Wes is proud of the support that Waheed Alli has given the Labour Party. He has given so much, never asked anything in return, and was instrumental to Labour’s victory, which is why the Tories are gunning for him.”

Speaking in New York on Thursday, Sir Keir insisted that “nothing wrong has been done here”.

“Everybody has complied with all of the rules,” he said. “Sometimes it takes time to go through the individual examples, which may or may not put the context for people to see and make their own judgments. But look, I know why you’re asking questions.”

Sir Keir also avoided questions over whether he had tried to pass the flat off as his own in a video filmed there during the pandemic in December 2021, in the background of which a family photo and Christmas cards can be seen.

He told reporters in New York: “The idea that I was trying to pretend it was in my home is pretty farcical.”

A spokesman for Sir Keir declined to say why the family picture was there, or whether it was placed there deliberately but confirmed it was not a Christmas card sent out by the Prime Minister.

Sir Keir and his family stayed in the flat from May 29 to July 13 this year, which he has defended by saying he needed somewhere quiet to stay while his son was doing his GCSEs. However. the exams finished in mid-June, around a month before the family moved out.

It means that Sir Keir was living there when he submitted his nomination to stand as an MP when he said he was living in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency. He would also need to have declared any political meetings held in Lord Alli’s flat as a campaign expense. National campaign expenses have not yet been published.

Richard Tice MP, deputy leader of Reform UK, said: “Sir Keir has got very serious questions to answer as to where he was himself living during the election campaign. That may lead to an issue of electoral law.

“If he was holding constituency campaign meetings there it should have been declared on his local return. He campaigned on the basis of transparency and an end to cronyism, and he keeps saying that rules matter, but unless he provides some answers people will conclude that he didn’t follow the rules.”

A Labour spokesman said: “These allegations are complete nonsense – and anyone with even the most basic understanding of electoral law would know that.”