Majority believe it is wrong for PM to accept gifts from businesses, poll finds

Three in four people believe it is wrong for the Prime Minister to accept gifts from businesses or organisations, polling has found.

The Ipsos study found 75% of Britons believe it is “rarely acceptable” or “never acceptable” for the Prime Minister to accept such items.

But 15% feel it is “usually acceptable” and 5% think it is “always acceptable”.

The survey was carried out in the wake of stories about how Sir Keir Starmer and members of the Government, including Chancellor Rachel Reeves, have accepted donations towards items of clothes.

Savanta meanwhile said its latest polls suggest “a nosedive in support” for Sir Keir.

The Prime Minister and his most senior ministers will no longer accept donations to pay for their clothes, the PA news agency understands.

Politicians from the three major parties, including the Prime Minister, have also accepted donated tickets to events.

Sir Keir was among MPs, including Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, to accept tickets to a Taylor Swift concert at Wembley Stadium from the Football Association.

More than two-thirds of those questioned (68%) said it is unacceptable to accept gifts from individuals.

Salary

The findings, released on Tuesday ahead of Sir Keir’s first speech to the Labour Party conference as Prime Minister, also found nearly half of Britons believe he earns too much money.

A total of 47% said they think Sir Keir’s annual salary of £166,786 is too high.

By comparison, the Prime Minister’s salary is lower than that of the chief executives and senior officials at some local authorities.

Meanwhile, 68% of those polled believe the £91,346 salary for MPs should be lower.

Ipsos questioned 1,029 adults by phone between September 20 and 23.

The results show similar dissatisfaction to those reported by YouGov earlier this week, when 64% of respondents said it is to some extent “unacceptable” for MPs to accept tickets to football matches and concerts as gifts.

The research released on Monday found 44% of 4,046 people questioned think it is “completely unacceptable” for MPs to accept such gifts, while 20% said it is “somewhat unacceptable”.

Ms Reeves said on Monday she does not “begrudge” gifted tickets for football or concerts providing they are declared by MPs in the correct way.

She told Times Radio: “As long as things are declared properly, so people can see if there’s any conflict of interest, I think it’s fine to go to the football and to go to a pop concert.

“I don’t begrudge people doing that.”

On Tuesday morning, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said stories about gifts for ministers are “squalls” that will matter less to the public than the plans the Prime Minister is expected to announce during his speech.

Speech

Pat McFadden told BBC Breakfast: “As your viewers can probably tell, I’ve been around politics for quite some time.

“There have been squalls like this in the past. I think what’s important is you work your way through them. We’ve got an important chance to do that today.

“We’ve got our first speech today from a Labour Prime Minister to a Labour Party conference for 15 years, so it’s a really big moment where the Prime Minister can set out his agenda for the future, which in the end will affect people’s lives much more than any rows in Downing Street or any of the stories that have been in the newspapers the last couple of weeks.”

Keiran Pedley, UK director of politics at Ipsos, said: “These findings reflect an inherent public scepticism when it comes to the Prime Minister receiving gifts from a wide range of sources.

“Whilst context clearly matters, the public appear to instinctively think the Prime Minister should not be receiving gifts from anyone. Or at least that it is rarely or never acceptable to do so.”

New polling from Savanta showed that Sir Keir’s net favourability has dropped by 28 points among 2024 Labour voters since his landslide election victory in July.

The Prime Minister’s rating has dropped from plus 71 just after the election in July to plus 43 in polls taken from September 20-22.

Among the wider public, Sir Keir’s rating has dropped from plus 15 in late July to minus 11 now, a plunge of 26 points and his lowest rating since July 2021.

Chris Hopkins, political research director at Savanta, said: “Our findings really do show the challenge that Keir Starmer faces as he stands up to make his first conference speech as Prime Minister.

“While he is still relatively popular among his own voters, he has absolutely seen a nosedive in support since the election, which was less than three months ago.

“The cumulative impacts of the summer unrest, the unpopular winter fuel allowance decision and ongoing questions around donations and hospitality appear to have considerably hurt Starmer and his government’s popularity, when they should still be riding high post-election.”