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Chancellor Rachel Reeves has defended accepting free tickets to a Sabrina Carpenter concert, adding she will declare them.
Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Reeves said she attended the concert a couple of weeks ago with a family member.
“I do now have security which means it’s not as easy as it would have been in the past to just sit in a concert,” she said.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer tightened rules on ministers accepting gifts and hospitality in November after he and a number of cabinet ministers faced criticism over donations.
PA MediaSir Keir paid back more than £6,000 worth of his own gifts and hospitality that he had received since becoming prime minister after the backlash. The figure included the cost of six Taylor Swift tickets.
The new rules introduced last year did not ban ministers from accepting donations but do now require them to consider the “need to maintain the public’s confidence”.
Reeves was asked by Kuenssberg on Sunday why she did not pay for the tickets. The chancellor responded that they were not tickets you could pay for.
“There wasn’t a price to those tickets,” she said, as she underlined she would declare the value of them.
Her confirmation follows reporting from a number of media outlets on the story earlier this week.
In September 2024, the chancellor said she would not accept clothing donations while in her current role after it emerged that she had accepted such donations while in opposition.
She had been one of a number of Labour politicians who faced questions after accepting thousands of pounds worth of clothes as gifts before the election.
Reeves previously told the BBC that accepting donations to pay for clothes was not something she had planned to do as a government minister.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride was also quizzed about gifts on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg with respect to ski passes and Bafta tickets accepted by shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith.
Griffith’s registered interests, which are detailed on the government’s website, include a declaration of two tickets with hospitality to the 2025 British Academy Film Awards (Bafta) estimated to be worth £4,000.
The shadow business secretary has also declared discounted ski-passes and guiding for two worth £973 for a trip to Switzerland in January.
Stride said on Sunday that he does not know the specific details.
Speaking of both Griffith and Reeves, Stride said: “I think it’s for them to justify what they do.”
The BBC has contacted Griffith for comment.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has defended accepting free tickets to a Sabrina Carpenter concert, adding she will declare them.
Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Reeves said she attended the concert a couple of weeks ago with a family member.
“I do now have security which means it’s not as easy as it would have been in the past to just sit in a concert,” she said.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer tightened rules on ministers accepting gifts and hospitality in November after he and a number of cabinet ministers faced criticism over donations.
PA MediaSir Keir paid back more than £6,000 worth of his own gifts and hospitality that he had received since becoming prime minister after the backlash. The figure included the cost of six Taylor Swift tickets.
The new rules introduced last year did not ban ministers from accepting donations but do now require them to consider the “need to maintain the public’s confidence”.
Reeves was asked by Kuenssberg on Sunday why she did not pay for the tickets. The chancellor responded that they were not tickets you could pay for.
“There wasn’t a price to those tickets,” she said, as she underlined she would declare the value of them.
Her confirmation follows reporting from a number of media outlets on the story earlier this week.
In September 2024, the chancellor said she would not accept clothing donations while in her current role after it emerged that she had accepted such donations while in opposition.
She had been one of a number of Labour politicians who faced questions after accepting thousands of pounds worth of clothes as gifts before the election.
Reeves previously told the BBC that accepting donations to pay for clothes was not something she had planned to do as a government minister.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride was also quizzed about gifts on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg with respect to ski passes and Bafta tickets accepted by shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith.
Griffith’s registered interests, which are detailed on the government’s website, include a declaration of two tickets with hospitality to the 2025 British Academy Film Awards (Bafta) estimated to be worth £4,000.
The shadow business secretary has also declared discounted ski-passes and guiding for two worth £973 for a trip to Switzerland in January.
Stride said on Sunday that he does not know the specific details.
Speaking of both Griffith and Reeves, Stride said: “I think it’s for them to justify what they do.”
The BBC has contacted Griffith for comment.
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