'It is acceptable': Lucy Powell MP grilled over free Manchester City tickets and £40k of gifts

The Question Time audience didn't hold back as they vented their frustration over MPs receiving free football tickets and other gifts.

It came after the Prime Minister was revealed to have accepted more than £35,000 worth of free football tickets over the last Parliament, along with thousands more in free clothes and concert tickets. According to Sky News, Sir Keir Starmer has declared £107,145 worth of gifts, benefits and hospitality over the last five years - by far the highest amount of any MP during that period.

As Question Time travelled to Ashton-under-Lyne for its latest instalment of heated debate, Leader of the House of Commons and Manchester Central MP Lucy Powell, who herself declared £40,289 worth of gifts in that time, the second highest amount, was asked if it was ever acceptable for an MP to receive gifts.

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She replied: "It happens and it is acceptable I think. What's really important is... transparency and that everything an MP receives being fully declared and fully transparent which is exactly what Keir Starmer, myself and others have done throughout all of this."

Asked about her own declarations, which included four sets of tickets from Manchester City FC and two from The Football Association worth a total of £2,440, she replied: "The vast majority of those relate to events I was attending when I was Shadow Culture Secretary, official events that I was attending in an official capacity, usually with the event organisers who were showing off the creative industries or the sports of this country. But one of the quirks of our system is that Ministers don't have to declare in the same way so I was at all of those events with the Secretary of State.

"In the case of me and the Prime Minister there are no conflicts of interest, there are no undue policy influences, that's why we, in a few weeks time, are bringing in a football regulator, which the Premier League and many others absolutely don't want us to do. We're taking on issues around dynamic ticketing, we've just published the renters rights bill. The vested interests of this country, we are taking them on."

An audience member named Nathaniel replied: "It was very tactful that you said events, because we're not just talking about events. Keir Starmer accepted glasses, clothes. It feels like when you get into an office of the land you are immediately impacted by people who want to give you gifts and it just looks like corruption."

And fellow panel member, Daily Telegraph columnist Jill Kirby, disputed the claim the PM had been transparent, saying the £16,000 of clothes and glasses he claimed first appeared as expenses associated with office. She added: "Keir Starmer does not need his clothes bought for him. He should have gone to Specsavers like everybody else."

Another audience member said: "Everybody keeps talking about transparency as if that's the answer and that makes it OK. But the question is whether it's acceptable to accept the gift in the first place. We should be saying no."

But at least one audience member felt it was OK for MP to receive gifts. She said: "It's quite refreshing to hear something about politicians being gifted things, rather than charging them on public expenses."