Ed Miliband has urged his party to stop selling access to senior government ministers, after it emerged Labour had offered company bosses breakfast with the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, for up to £30,000. The energy secretary defended his cabinet colleague on Friday, saying he knew nothing about the breakfast, details of which were revealed by the Sun on Thursday night. Labour officials say the business breakfast is not going ahead.
The story follows weeks of revelations about donations by the Labour peer Waheed Alli, who was granted a Downing Street pass in the early days of the new government. Earlier this week, it emerged Alli was under investigation by the Lords standards commissioner for failing to register his interests properly. Asked about the breakfast with Reynolds, Miliband said: “Don’t do it again, is my message.” He insisted Reynolds had no plans to attend the event, but added: “The answer is – whether it is me or Jonathan Reynolds – it is not about paying to have access. That is not what we are about, no.” A Labour spokesperson said: “The business secretary isn’t involved in this, was completely unaware, and isn’t attending.” Labour has been dogged by stories about gifts and donations in its first few months in power, much of it centred around Lord Alli, who has given £32,000-worth of clothes to Keir Starmer and gifted Angela Rayner the use of his New York flat when she was on holiday. On Thursday, the Sun revealed Labour’s commercial team had emailed a pitch to businesses inviting them to a business breakfast at the Ivy restaurant in Manchester.
For £15,000 plus VAT, companies were told they would get an opportunity to give a keynote speech, photographs with the business secretary and others, and a dedicated member of Labour party staff to help make introductions. For £30,000 they would also get to help decide who would attend. In the pitch, Labour called the offer a “unique opportunity to become a commercial partner at our business policy round-table over breakfast”. Businesses regularly sponsor political events as a way to get close to senior party figures, though the sums being charged for the Labour business breakfast were relatively high. Both Labour and the Conservatives hosted business days at their recent party conferences, where executives could pay about £3,000 to watch speeches by senior party figures. As part of the programme, both parties promised “networking opportunities” with ministers or shadow ministers to those who paid for tickets. Starmer, meanwhile, is working on new guidelines for accepting donations, having himself handed back £6,000-worth of gifts and hospitality that he and his wife accepted in recent weeks. That included retrospectively paying for free Taylor Swift tickets he was given and for a clothing rental agreement for his wife. Miliband said on Friday that the prime minister’s decision to repay the money sent a “signal” to others, and was a “prelude” to the forthcoming guidelines.