Not appropriate to take free tickets, minister says

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has said he does not "personally think it's appropriate" to accept free concert tickets, after the chancellor took a family member to see pop star Sabrina Carpenter without paying.

Rachel Reeves defended taking the tickets for the show at the O2 arena on security grounds.

On Monday the prime minister backed his chancellor, saying "everything she has done is according to the rules".

Sir Keir Starmer tightened the rules on ministers accepting gifts and hospitality last year, following a backlash over senior Labour figures receiving freebies.

Ministers are not banned from accepting gifts, as long as they are declared, but under the new rules they must consider the need to maintain public trust.

Asked on LBC how many times he had accepted free tickets to the O2 arena, which in his Greenwich and Woolwich constituency, Pennycook replied: "Zero".

Asked for his thoughts on Reeves taking free tickets to see Sabrina Carpenter, Pennycook said: "I don't personally think it's appropriate.

"If I want to go to a concert at the O2 I'll pay for it - but individual MPs, individual ministers, make their own decisions.

"I think that the important thing is that everything is declared and above board, so individual people can make their choices as to whether they think it's appropriate to take tickets on occasions.

"I personally haven't done, as I said, at the O2, and wouldn't do."

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner insisted Pennycook, a minister in her department, had not been criticising the chancellor's actions.

She said he would not accept hospitality at the O2 because the venue was in his constituency and it would be a potential conflict of interest.

Rayner, who has herself faced criticism over donations, including a stay in a New York apartment owned by a Labour donor, said accepting hospitality "happens across the whole political spectrum".

She told BBC Radio 4's The World at One there were "very clear" rules and Reeves had "declared it [the tickets] in the appropriate way".

But former Home Secretary Lord Blunkett said he would not have accepted free tickets if he had still been in government.

"I wouldn't have done it," the Labour peer told the BBC's Politics Live.

"I would have just sat in the audience."

In an interview with the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Reeves defended her decision to accept the tickets because she "thought that was the right thing to do from a security perspective".

She said: "I do now have security which means it's not as easy as it would've been in the past to, to just sit in a concert, although that would probably be a lot easier for everyone concerned."

Reeves was also asked why she did not pay for the tickets herself and responded: "These weren't tickets that you could pay for, so there wasn't a price to those tickets... they weren't tickets that you were able to buy."

Backing his chancellor on Monday, the prime minister told the BBC: "We've toughened up the rules in terms of declarations, and everything she has done is according to the rules. That's what I would expect."

In October, Sir Keir paid back £6,000 of gifts and hospitality he had received since becoming prime minister - including Taylor Swift tickets.

However, he has defended accepting tickets for the corporate box at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, saying he cannot watch games from the stands for security reasons.

In September Downing Street said the PM, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Reeves would no longer accept donations of clothes.

Conservative shadow Cabinet Office minister Mike Wood said Reeves "must kick her addiction to freebies".

Responding to the Pennycook's comments, he said: "This is an extraordinary slap down of the profligate champagne lifestyle Rachel Reeves has been enjoying since becoming chancellor.

"When senior Labour ministers are openly criticising her judgement then it's no surprise business and investors are as well."

Conservative shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith has also faced questions over accepting £4,000 of hospitality to attend the Bafta awards with his wife in February, as well as £973 for skiing in Davos, Switzerland.

Griffith insisted his attendance at the Baftas was "quite different" to Reeves' free tickets, telling the BBC at the weekend that "a lot of ministers and people from different parties were there as well".

He added that "engaging with Swiss parliamentarians" could help secure a financial services deal and create jobs.

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