MPs declare more than £1m of gifts and hospitality in year since election

MPs have received more than £1 million in gifts since the election, including foreign travel, accommodation and tickets to sporting events and concerts.

Rows over free tickets and other gifts given to senior Labour figures, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, posed an early problem for the UK Government, which had made restoring trust in politics a major part of its election campaign.

But analysis of the MPs’ Register of Interests by the PA news agency shows hundreds of MPs have declared receiving gifts in the past year.

Some 236 MPs declared gifts from UK sources, totalling £477,539, while 144 said they had been on overseas trips paid for by donors, charities, think tanks or foreign governments, worth another £810,761.

Gifts

In total, 318 MPs declared that they had received gifts in the year since the election, just under half the number sitting in the Commons.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage declared the highest value, receiving gifts worth a total of £98,709 over the past year.

The bulk of these took the form of flights and accommodation on a number of trips to the United States, paid for by Reform donor Christopher Harborne and party volunteer George Cottrell.

But they also include £8,413 for a helicopter journey from JC Bamford, whose owner has previously backed the Tories, and tickets worth £2,000 from boxer Derek Chisora to watch his fight against Joe Joyce last August.

The biggest recipient of hospitality from UK sources was the Prime Minister, thanks to his regular attendance at Arsenal games.

Football

Sir Keir declared £11,170 worth of football tickets over the past year. A long-standing Arsenal season ticket holder, he has previously said that he is no long

er able to sit in the stands because of security concerns, but has been offered a seat in the club directors’ box so he can continue to attend matches with his son.

The Prime Minister declared a total of £17,344 in hospitality and other gifts since the election, with other donations including tickets from Universal Music and the FA to see Taylor Swift and the loan of clothes to his wife.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch declared just one gift – £14,350 from Tory donor Neil Record to cover work space, accommodation and hospitality for a series of meetings in Gloucestershire in March this year.

While several MPs received significant sums in gifts, most declared lower amounts or none at all, with the median MP receiving £1,208 in gifts over the year.

Some 49 MPs received free tickets to football matches in the past year, totalling almost £59,000.

Hospitality 

But gifts from football clubs and organisations such as the FA and the Premier League totalled more than £70,000, and included concert tickets as well as hospitality at matches.

The single largest gift of sporting tickets, however, was declared by shadow business minister Greg Smith, who received hospitality worth £5,160 at last year’s British Grand Prix from hosts Silverstone.

Four other MPs, including Leader of the Commons Lucy Powell and shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel, also received hospitality at Silverstone last year.

Eight MPs received hospitality from the Lawn Tennis Association at Wimbledon in 2024, while golf’s R&A provided tickets for four MPs at the Open.

Another 49 MPs received tickets to awards ceremonies including the Baftas, the Brit Awards and the British Kebab Awards, while 23 were given tickets and hospitality for horse racing events, and 21 received tickets to concerts.

The most popular of those concerts were part of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, with nine MPs receiving free tickets totalling £14,628, mostly from the Premier League and the FA.

As well as the Prime Minister, they included Cabinet ministers Darren Jones, Peter Kyle, Bridget Phillipson and Wes Streeting, and Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey.

Scandals

During the last election, Labour campaigned on a pledge to restore probity to public life after the scandals that had plagued the previous Conservative government.

Last year Sir Keir sought to toughen up transparency rules for ministers, introducing a new monthly register of gifts and hospitality for ministers rather than the previous quarterly releases.

He also changed the Ministerial Code in November to include the seven principles of public life directly in the rules and allow the independent adviser on ministerial standards to launch his own investigations.

But Alastair McCapra, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, warned the continued culture of gifts and hospitality in British politics risked creating a “full-blown crisis of legitimacy”.

He said: “At the heart of this credibility gap is the shadowy relationship between business and politics.

“The entrenched culture of gifts and hospitality in British politics creates the perception of corruption, and the suspicion of back doors to access are damaging a Labour Party that campaigned on promises of transparency, integrity and a break from the past.

“Political scandals thrive in the gaps between information and silence.

“If the Government and the business community are serious about building back trust, they must prioritise and accept a relationship that is transparent and accountable to the public.”