MPs have declared more than £6m in “freebies” since 2010 with the cash price of gifts given almost tripling over two years, analysis reveals, leading to calls for urgent reform.
The value of “gifts, benefits and hospitality” declared by MPs was £1.3m in 2023, analysis shows, up from £483,507 in 2021. And the amount of gifts increased to 768 from 337 during the same period.
But the sum total of gifts will be even higher because the figures do not include those received by ministers, who are not required to declare them on the register of MPs’ interests. Nor does it factor in interest-free seven-figure loans made to parliamentarians.
Figures show that almost half of all the donations accepted by MPs since 2010 were given in the last two years. They included tickets for football matches and concerts, badges for horse race meetings, honorary club memberships, helicopter rides and payment of legal fees.
The MP who had declared the most gifts and hospitality items since 2010 was Laurence Robertson, the former Tory MP for Tewkesbury, who lost his seat at the last election. He accepted 88 gifts worth £81,913.53. Forty-nine of those came from betting companies, with a further 32 coming from horse racing companies. The Guardian approached him for comment.
There is continuing controversy around Keir Starmer and the “passes for glasses” scandal. The prime minister, who has declared more free tickets and gifts than other party leaders in recent times, initially failed to declare designer clothes and spectacles given to him and his wife by the Labour peer Waheed Alli.
The data has prompted calls for a swift reform of the rules, including strengthening the requirements surrounding ministers’ gifts and requesting more information from MPs declaring larger amounts.
Senior government figures believe there is a discrepancy between the rules which apply to ministers and those relating to MPs and are examining potential changes.
At present, ministers make transparency declarations through their departments. They do not have to cite a value for the hospitality they receive and what they do declare is often infrequent, delayed and patchy.
Any reforms would be made through the modernisation committee, which was established earlier this month and is chaired by the Commons leader, Lucy Powell.
Tim Durrant, programme director at the Institute for Government, said the controversy over Starmer’s declarations highlighted “inconsistencies in the system that should be rectified and public concerns about gifts to politicians that warrant further reform”.
“It doesn’t make sense that ministers do not have to declare gifts and hospitality as quickly and in as much detail as non-governmental MPs. Labour criticised this in opposition and should close this loophole for ministers as soon as possible,” Durrant said.
Alistair Graham, a former chair of the committee on standards in public life, suggested that MPs should be asked to give more detail about larger gifts and said the rules around transparency should be the same for MPs and ministers.
“I don’t think if somebody is given a ticket for a football match it’s likely to influence their policymaking decisions,” Graham said. “The scale of the freebie I think is important. The larger amount, the more likely the organisation or individual is going to seek some benefit from it. We perhaps need a threshold above which more detail is given.”
Rob Ford, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester, said that from the public’s perspective the issue would be those who are perceived to be abusing the system.
“A lot of people might have done a corporate hospitality jolly at a football match. But if you’ve got someone doing it 20 times a year, they’ll think that seems a bit dodgy,” he said.
Experts underlined that the declarations system offered transparency and enabled scrutiny of MPs’ gifts and hospitality.
Since the row over Lord Alli’s donations, the Labour top team has pledged to stop taking clothes as gifts. Analysis found clothes made up a tiny proportion of gifts, with free hospitality making up a much bigger proportion of declarations.
Taking into account the relative size of the parliamentary parties, Conservative MPs declared more gifts on average than Labour MPs between 2010 and 2022, at which point Labour MPs started receiving more than their Tory colleagues.
Gifts to Conservative MPs were also worth more on average over the same period – £1,372 per item in 2023, compared with £867 for each gift to a Labour MP.
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After Robertson, the former MP who declared the most gifts and hospitality items was the former Commons speaker John Bercow (82 gifts – 32 of them tickets to tennis matches including Wimbledon). He was followed by Theresa May (79 gifts – mostly for the VIP suite in Heathrow, which former prime ministers make use of).
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “We always take a view on how to maintain a safe and efficient operation at the airport. At our discretion, we have the option of providing limited access to the Windsor suite where we consider it will make the best use of the airport’s security resources. As the register reflects, the proper reporting procedures have been followed.”
Philip Davies, who set up a consultancy firm as election defeat loomed, accepted 77 gifts after 2010, 55 of which were from betting or horse racing firms.
The gifts, hospitality and benefits which MPs accepted came from a variety of donors, but certain industries and businesses including airports, gambling companies, sports and members’ clubs, broadcasters and other music and entertainment industry companies featured heavily.
The Guardian identified 156 MPs who accepted 393 tickets or other freebies from football clubs and leaguesafter 2015 with a combined face value of more than £284,000.
Over the same time period at least 84 MPs accepted more than £270,000 in gifts from bookmakers or other gambling bodies, which were also often tickets to football matches or other sporting events.
Broadcasters have given 113 different MPs hospitality freebies worth a combined £200,000. These were again mainly tickets to sports matches or cultural events such as the Baftas or National Television Awards.
Meanwhile record labels, festivals and music industry associations have provided at least 92 MPs with more than £192,000 in gifts since 2015, including tickets to award shows, festivals and gigs by Kylie, Adele, the Cure, and the Rolling Stones.
The top 10 gift-givers since 2015
Heathrow Airport – 119
Premier League – 105
Betting and Gaming Council – 93
Lawn Tennis Association – 63
UK Music – 62
Jockey Club Racecourses – 60
ITV – 58
FA group – 57
BBC – 55
Unite the Union – 52
Source: theguardian.com
