Sunday, August 23, 2026
The freebie culture
The paper says that despite the outcry in 2024 over Keir Starmer accepting football tickets and gifts of clothing, MPs appear to have been declaring hospitality since the start of the year on a greater scale than previously seen:
The most recent disclosures include £858 worth of tickets to a Harry Styles concert at Wembley from the PRS for Music industry group, which was accepted by Powell, the deputy leader and education secretary. And Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, accepted tickets to the Chelsea flower show from Lloyds Banking Group worth £1,839.
Haigh also accepted a £1,314 ticket to the Ivor Novello awards, while Anneliese Midgley, the chief whip, enjoyed Brit Awards hospitality for two worth £3,432, hospitality at Cheltenham festival horse racing from the betting company Flutter worth £350, and tickets to the Grand National valued at £560. All were backbench MPs while accepting the hospitality and have now been elevated to cabinet jobs under Andy Burnham.
Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, accepted £1,480 of tickets to the men’s Wimbledon singles final while in her cabinet job, while Ellie Reeves, the attorney general, accepted a £1,314 ticket to the Ivors while solicitor general.
Burnham declared hospitality worth about £6,000 this year – mostly relating to his former role as the mayor of Greater Manchester, such as £3,800 tickets to the Brit Awards in Manchester, but also £500 worth of tickets to Ladies’ Day at the Grand National in Aintree.
The acceptance of free hospitality by MPs appeared to fall after mid-2024 when the spotlight fell on Starmer’s string of free tickets to watch Arsenal football games. In March 2025, Rachel Reeves, the then chancellor, said she would not accept free concert tickets again after she was criticised for using free tickets to take a family member to see Sabrina Carpenter at the O2 arena. She defended the decision on security grounds but said she would not do it again because she understood “how people feel about it”.
At the time, another government minister, Matthew Pennycock, said he had accepted “zero” free concert tickets as he personally did not think it was appropriate. “If I want to go to a concert at the O2, I’ll pay for it. But individual MPs, individual ministers, make their own decisions,” he said.
The value of free tickets being accepted by MPs was at about £300,000 a year in 2025, according to the Times last December. But this appears to have increased, with almost £400,000 of complimentary tickets, hospitality and other gifts having been declared between January and July this year – not including foreign trips.
It is quite easy to fall into the habit of accepting these freebies as an elected representative, often offered to secure access and to pitch a case or to form a relationship for future influence, a point emphasised by Sue Hawley, the director of Spotlight on Corruption:
“Showering MPs and ministers with gifts and hospitality is a tried and tested lobbying tactic by big business and foreign governments. There is no good reason why elected officials should be accepting jaunts and tickets to events that have nothing to do with their parliamentary or constituency business.”
Perhaps mpre MPs should take note.
