Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves declared clothing donations as office support

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UK deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and chancellor Rachel Reeves both took thousands of pounds of work clothing from rich donors that were declared as generic support for their work, the Financial Times can reveal.

The latest revelations further call into question Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s promise to lead a government of transparency only two months into his tenure, on the eve of Labour’s first party conference since winning power.

Labour officials — who initially refused to comment on a £3,550 donation to Rayner by Labour chief fundraiser Lord Waheed Alli — on Friday admitted the donation was clothing. Parliamentary rules state that any donations “in kind” should be detailed.

In addition, Reeves received £7,500 from a donor called Juliet Rosenfeld in four instalments from January 2023 to May 2024 which was used to pay for clothing, according to people with knowledge of the gifts.

Those were registered as donations “to support the Shadow Chancellor’s office” rather than as clothing, though this did not break any rules.

Alli, a wealthy Labour peer and the party’s head of fundraising, is in the spotlight after revelations that Starmer initially failed to declare clothing gifts worth £16,200 from the media tycoon and £5,000 of clothing for his wife.

Rayner is one of seven cabinet ministers that received donations and gifts from Alli in the run-up to the July 4 general election.

She has taken four donations from the entrepreneur in the past year, including £8,500 last October, £8,250 in March and £900 in April, all of which were declared as money “to support me in my capacity as deputy leader of the Labour party”. It is understood that some of that money was spent on work clothes for major political events.

The fourth donation, made in June from Alli to Rayner, amounting to £3,550 was logged differently as a “donation in kind for undertaking parliamentary duties”. 

After being approached on Thursday morning — hours after revelations that Starmer himself had not disclosed his clothing donations properly — both Rayner’s team and the Labour press office refused to say what the donations consisted of and whether they included clothing.

After the FT published an article raising questions about the June gift early on Friday afternoon, Labour officials confirmed that the donation was items of work clothing.

Party officials also told the FT that Reeves had re-examined the Rosenfeld donations in the light of recent press coverage and contacted the registrar to confirm whether those gifts had been correctly declared. He said they had been properly declared.

Reeves, Rayner and Starmer will all refuse to accept future donations of that kind now that Labour is in government, the officials added.

Andrew Griffith, Conservative shadow science and technology secretary, said: “Far from serving the public, Labour politicians seem to have been helping themselves.”

The FT revealed on Wednesday that Starmer initially recorded a donation from Alli worth £16,200 in the register under the category of “any other support”, and described it as “private support for the office of the leader of the opposition”. 

The following month, he altered his entry, shifting Alli’s donation to the separate category of “gifts, benefits and hospitality’” and disclosed, for the first time, that it was: “work clothing, value £16,200 “.

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

Starmer changed the record after he was informed by officials that his initial entry ran counter to the rules set out in the MPs’ code of conduct.

The prime minister last week belatedly declared a donation from Alli of £5,000 of clothing given to his wife after his team checked whether it needed to be in the register. 

Starmer’s free clothing, along with free trips to football matches and pop concerts, has attracted widespread media attention, partly because of his promise to “turn the page” after years of Conservative scandals.

Rayner has also taken Alli’s hospitality by staying at a Manhattan apartment for a “personal holiday” over the most recent New Year. She registered £1,250 for five days in a New York apartment from December 29, 2023 to January 2, 2024.