Keir Starmer facing questions over value of his free football tickets

The freebie crisis engulfing Sir Keir Starmer intensified after it was revealed that he has dramatically underestimated the value of some of the free football tickets and lavish hospitality he has enjoyed.

An analysis by The Mail on Sunday suggests the Prime Minister understated by hundreds of pounds the true value of free tickets to two crunch Premier League matches.

The revelation comes as it was claimed that Sir Keir received 'mates' rates' for his month-and-a-half stay at a luxury London penthouse owned by controversial Labour donor Lord Alli. 

It also emerged this weekend that Lord Alli handed Sir Keir an additional £16,000 of clothes, bringing the total of gifted clothing to an astonishing £32,000.

Details of the latest donation have only come to light after it was declared on a public register as money for Sir Keir's private office.

Sir Keir has been mired in a freebies row after receiving £133,590 in donations and gifts since 2019. They include free tickets to 29 different football matches, worth more than £35,000.

Questions are mounting, however, over the value of some freebies declared by Sir Keir in the Register of Members' Interests.

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While Leader of the Opposition, Sir Keir was handed four tickets in a lavish corporate box for the crunch Tottenham v Arsenal North London derby in May 2022.

He declared that the seats, which included hospitality, were worth £532 in total, or £133 per seat.

The prices of tickets for that match, which saw Tottenham thrash Arsenal 3-0, are no longer available, but the cheapest premium seats for another of Tottenham's London derbies that season – their home fixture against West Ham – would have cost £1,400 for four tickets, or £350 each.

The prices of tickets with hospitality to the match against Arsenal are likely to have been even higher.

A spokesman for Tottenham said: 'This was shared hospitality which included juniors.'

Sir Keir also received four tickets for Arsenal's away match against Brighton in April this year, which he declared were valued at £500, or £125 each.

He was pictured watching the match alongside his wife Lady Starmer and Arsenal's executive vice-chairman Tim Lewis.

Prices for that match are no longer available but the cheapest hospitality tickets for this season's Brighton v Arsenal fixture start at £300, equivalent to £1,200 for four tickets.

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Last night sources said that Sir Keir and Lady Starmer sat in guest seats which are not available for sale.

The Mail on Sunday understands that the club provided Sir Keir's office with an estimated value for the tickets based on the cost to the club, rather than the value of the seats if they were sold on the open market.

Tory MP and ex-Cabinet Minister John Glen said: 'Once again, Sir Keir Starmer's declarations appear to have dramatically understated the real value of these freebie perks.

'To get the same sort of premium seats, ordinary football fans – who don't have the luxury of being invited into the directors' box – would have had to pay a small fortune.

'But freebie-loving Sir Keir got that sort of lavish hospitality for free.' 

A Government spokesman said: 'The value of the tickets was set by those providing the tickets, not us. It's for the hosts to say what the value is, and that's what we report.'

Between August 2023 and May this year, Sir Keir was hosted by Premier League bosses at no fewer than 12 matches, at a rate of roughly one per fortnight.

In June he accepted four free tickets to a Taylor Swift concert at Wembley Stadium, paid for by the Premier League, which he declared were worth £4,000.

The MoS last week revealed that Sir Keir and his embattled chief of staff Sue Gray enjoyed a corporate box at Tottenham Hotspur earlier this month alongside a powerful lobbyist who backed the hated breakaway Super League.

Sir Keir declared that the value of his stay at Lord Alli's 5,000 sq ft flat in Covent Garden was £20,400, amounting to £450 a night or £13,500 a month.

However, similar properties rented out for short periods in the area have been advertised for more than twice the price, with one Covent Garden apartment offered for £30,000 a month.