This was unlikely to be an easy week for Rachel Reeves, with tomorrow's Spring Statement likely to include controversial spending cuts. "But things are going from bad to worse for the beleaguered chancellor," said The Spectator, after "yet more Labour ministers hit out" at her latest freebie.
Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook has "taken a pop" at Reeves accepting gifted tickets to a Sabrina Carpenter concert earlier this month, saying it wasn't "appropriate". The Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich (where the O2 is located) told LBC: "If I want to go to a concert at the O2 I'll pay for it."
"Shots fired!" said the magazine.
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'Indefensible'
There is "no suggestion" that Reeves has broken any rules, said The i Paper (which revealed the story). She will declare the tickets, reportedly worth £600, and when asked why she hadn't paid for them herself, she told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg: "There wasn't a price to those tickets." But there may be a political price: the story "threatens to reignite the row" over MPs receiving freebies after last year's "public outcry".
Yesterday, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander "effectively cut her fellow cabinet minister adrift", said the Daily Mail, saying she was "too busy" for freebies. Downing Street also "gave a lukewarm endorsement", saying the prime minister "supports all of his ministers making their own judgments".
Labour MP Rachael Maskell said accepting the tickets was "indefensible", given what Reeves is paid, and the fact that she's planning major government cuts to benefits. "Those who live in poverty will rightly question, as they struggle to get by, why those who are cutting their lifeline are in receipt of handouts. Not to recognise the inequity in this goes to the heart of the problem."
'What's the issue?'
"I don't understand the fuss about this whatsoever," Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley told the BBC's "Politics Live". "Unless Sabrina Carpenter is expecting a quid pro quo, unless she's looking for a safe seat in Labour-held Wales, I don't understand why it matters that she [Reeves] got a free ticket."
Outcry over freebies was "salient" before the election, because Labour was "portraying itself as the party of toolmakers" – who it turned out were dressed in "designer freebies". I understand why people didn't like that, but if Reeves is now getting a "small gift" then "what's the issue"?
Reeves defended accepting the box seats, telling the BBC's Kuenssberg: "I do now have security, which means it's not as easy as it would have been in the past to just sit in a concert."
Oh come off it, said Zoe Williams in The Guardian. I "disapprove quite strongly" of Reeves' performance but "I wouldn't dream of ruining an evening of bouncy pop by accosting her". After the "shambles" last year – Keir Starmer's Taylor Swift tickets and the cash donation for Reeves' wardrobe – "it should have been obvious that freebies are to be avoided". After all, this political generation was "raised to ask 'how will this look?' first and 'is this important?' some time later, if at all".
