Freebie fiasco suggests Sir Keir Starmer even more tone deaf than journalists

One of the small teeny tiny perks, however, at least when I was coming up through tabloids, was the frankly overbearing amount of freebies, and just how little we needed to do to get them.

Fancy a Domino’s? We’d put two sentences about a deal they had on offer in the paper, and the next day lunch was free. Fancy going in a box to watch Spurs? Email that PR from the phone company and promise to forward on a press release, and you’re in with free alcohol and food.

Craving something not immediately possible? Don’t fret, there’s ways for that to. It’s an industry, at least on Fleet Street, where the only real limit was how shameless people were willing to be, what they wouldn’t ask for. I know one former colleague who saw the forecast was grim later in the week, so told a PR from Greggs it was his birthday so he’d get free pastries to take the edge off.

It’s a little unseemly, it’s of questionable principle, but it is also absolutely widespread. It’s how journalists at the biggest papers get tickets to the most popular events. Journalism, even when it comes to perks, is about who you know.

While not above a free football match, I have never been particularly comfortable with this. I recall one year turning down the annual boat party by a large gambling company that was offering bottomless alcohol and a B-list performer. I liked the idea of a drink, going down the Thames in the actual sun. But the idea of taking money from companies that are essentially parasites on the working class, leeches draining those who shouldn’t be betting it was simply too much. In short, I knew where to draw the line.

It is with this overly moral grandstanding that I come to Sir Keir Starmer, a man who has raked in more than £100,000 of gifts, benefits and hospitality since December 2019. While I appreciate it’s hard to get Taylor Swift tickets, and I know journalists who did the same, the difference is they are bloody journalists. Our dear knight of the realm was elected to govern and clean up politics after years of corruption and filth, not to pretend he has to accept box tickets at Arsenal as otherwise he can’t go. It’s absurd, it’s dishonest and it’s beneath the values he was so keen to stress during the campaign.

I am not against our politicians having a good time, but I am wholly in favour of them having a sense of perspective. If you’re making tough decisions and cutting support for the most vulnerable, then maybe it’s not a good look to accept designer clothes for your wife. It’s all a bit David Brent telling people some of them would lose their jobs, but the good news, is he’s been promoted.

Being Prime Minister is a privilege and one that comes with a brilliant salary, an array of free accommodation and heavily subsidised travel. At the same time, people are dying. It wouldn’t hurt Sir Keir to at least act like he knows that.