Overview
- Conservative chairman Kevin Hollinrake has asked the Electoral Commission to reopen its case and consider a police referral over more than £700,000 in donations that Labour Together declared late.
- The Conservatives have also written to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner seeking an inquiry into whether Keir Starmer failed to declare support in kind from Labour Together during his 2020 leadership campaign.
- The calls cite leaked 2021 advice from Labour lawyer Gerald Shamash and internal emails said to discuss portraying the failures as an administrative error and limiting publicity, which the Tories argue suggests deliberate concealment.
- Labour Together says it proactively raised concerns in 2020 and fully cooperated with the regulator, which fined the group £14,250 in 2021 for over 20 breaches and concluded the failures occurred without reasonable excuse.
- Downing Street says Starmer retains full confidence in chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has dismissed the Conservative claims as political muckraking, while a forthcoming book is expected to revisit the episode.