With Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria in the spotlight for accepting high-end donations, Mancunian Matters can reveal some of the lavish gifts received by Greater Manchester MPs.
A £4,950 trip for three to the British Grand Prix and a £2,600 weekend at Glastonbury festival were among the more eye-catching donations taken by the area’s politicians over the last two years.
All MPs must declare gifts and donations, details of which are publicly available. MM trawled through all the Greater Manchester MPs for the most eye-catching over the last two years.
Lucy Powell, MP for Manchester Central, took a guest to the 2023 Baftas on a £3,432 donation as well as enjoying seats at Wimbledon, tickets to the Grand National, and a £4,950 trip to the British Grand Prix – events all relevant to her role as Labour shadow culture, media and sport secretary.
Meanwhile Jeff Smith, MP for Withington, went to this year’s FA Cup final as a £1,798 gift from City Football Group, was given the chance to see Kendrick Lamar headline the 2022 Glastonbury festival on a £2,600 donation from PRS Music, and the same year accepted £1,020 – “including refreshments” – to see the Brit Awards.
Current deputy prime minister Angela Rayner – who went viral dancing in Ibiza over the summer – received three tickets worth £450 for the 2023 Parklife Festival.
Never kissed a Tory 😘 x pic.twitter.com/RCwrCFQYXG
— Georgia Toffolo (@ToffTalks) June 11, 2023
MP for Bury North, James Frith also enjoyed various sporting donations, and though they were all before he was elected in the summer, he said he declared them for full transparency.
Over the last two years, Frith has been donated four hospitality packages worth more than £7,000 for various Premier League games. He also enjoyed a week-long trip to the Paris Olympics worth £4,812, donated to him by a UK IT company.
A spokesperson for Lucy Powell MP said: “Lucy and her staff were invited to attend the vast majority of these events when she was the Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, attending in an official capacity nearly always by and with the organisers of the event. Each donation has been declared transparently and in the usual way.”
Feature Image Credit: jaswooduk courtesy of Wikimedia Creative Commons
