Boris Johnson has labelled the prime minister “greedy” over his decision to accept clothing freebies.
The Conservative ex-prime minister blasted his successor’s decision to accept gifts of clothing and glasses, insisting Keir Starmer “must be worth a bob or two” due to his legal career.
The PM has been under fire for accepting more than £107,000 worth of gifts and hospitality from party donors since 2019, including free tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.
Earlier this month, Starmer paid back more than £6,000 worth of those freebies — saying it was “right” for him to repay it while the new guidelines for accepting gifts were drawn up.
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Speaking to LBC News, Johnson said: “I want you to know, I have no donors paying for my suits. Or spectacles. Who pays for your spectacles? You pay for your spectacles, don’t you? It’s unbelievable.
“I mean, the guy [Sir Keir], he’s a silk, right? I mean, he must be worth a bob or two. Why has he got some guy paying for his spectacles?”
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Johnson, promoting his memoir Unleashed, questioned why Starmer had accepted gifts from Labour peer and donor Lord Alli when he was “on a perfectly good salary from the government anyway”.
He added: “You know, that looks greedy, right? But if you then give the guy a pass to No 10, that looks corrupt. And so I just don’t get it. I don’t know why he’s still wearing those spectacles.
“Well apart from the fact he can’t see. He can’t see what a mess he’s making of things.”
Boris Johnson, who left parliament in June 2023, made headlines last year for receiving the biggest donation to an MP on record after a single contribution of £1 million.
Johnson also received a donation worth £23,853 from the JCB boss, Anthony Bamford, and his wife Carole, to pay for elements of his 2021 wedding.
As prime minister, Johnson took an estimated £52,000 worth of donations to renovation his Downing Street flat in a saga that became known as wallpapergate. The ex-PM later said he had repaid all the money back.
Elsewhere in the LBC interview, Johnson was asked if he would apologise on behalf of his government for procuring apparently dubious Covid contracts related to PPE during the pandemic.
Johnson reflected that he remembered the UK’s “absolute desperation” to get PPE into the UK.
He went on to apologise for the dubious nature of some contracts: “They did and I’m sorry about that but, you know, frankly, we needed that stuff as fast as possible. And I think most people really understand that. Our country was desperate for protective equipment.
“And, you know, I defend the government in trying to get it as fast as possible. And all sorts of crazy people were recommended to us for PPE, but we just had to act as fast as we could.”
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