British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at centre of controversy for accepting £100,000 in gifts

British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has declared more than 100,000 pounds ($132,500) in gifts, benefits and hospitality since December 2019, more than any other member of parliament, according to figures compiled by Sky News.

Starmer, who who became leader of the Labour Party in April 2020 and won power in an election in July, has been criticized in the British media since it was revealed that she accepted clothes worth thousands of pounds from a wealthy businessman.

He said he followed all necessary transparency rules in declaring the gifts, but the figures are politically damaging at a time when his government is cutting financial aid to pay the energy bills of millions of retirees.

Sky reported that Starmer had accepted £107,145 in gifts, benefits and hospitality, one of the categories in parliament’s register of interests, since the 2019 national election.

The next highest recipient was House of Commons Leader Lucy Powell, with £40,289. It was stated that legal fees were excluded from the totals.

The gifts of Starmer’s tax revenue included £12,588 worth of tickets from Premier League football, which is lobbying against the prime minister’s plans to create a football regulator.

This included more than £6,000 worth of tickets to Arsenal matches, his favourite club, £1,628 worth of tickets to the European Championship final and four hospitality tickets to a Taylor Swift concert worth a total of £4,000.

Earlier this week he defended the right to accept hospitality gifts, saying that if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to go to a football match.