Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Keir Starmer received £4,000 Taylor Swift at Wembley stadium tickets for free

Starmer received £19,340 worth of free football tickets with hospitality

Athena Stavrou
Friday 23 August 2024 20:08 BST
Comments
Keir Starmer reveals his favourite Taylor Swift song

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sir Keir Starmer was gifted free Taylor Swift concert tickets worth £4,000 whilst on the campaign trail earlier this year.

The now prime minister took a “swift” break from his campaign in June to attend the singer’s first stop at Wembley stadium on her recordbreaking Eras Tour.

At the time, Sir Keir shared a sweet picture of himself and his wife Lady Victoria in front of the 90,000 strong crowd as they looked on from a hospitality booth.

It has now come to light that the Labour leader got to enjoy the show for free, as he was gifted four hospitality tickets worth £1,000 each, courtesy of the Premier League.

At the time, Sir Keir shared a sweet picture of himself and his wife Victoria in front of the 90,000 strong crowd as they looked on from a hospitality booth.
At the time, Sir Keir shared a sweet picture of himself and his wife Victoria in front of the 90,000 strong crowd as they looked on from a hospitality booth. (Keir Starmer/X)

The June show was not the only concert Starmer enjoyed for free. In December he received two tickets worth £800 to the Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball at the O2.

Most of his gifted outings were unsurprisingly to support his favourite football team, Arsenal.

The prime minister was gifted free tickets to 12 football games with hospitality over the last year, amounting to a total of £19,340. The most expensive of these were two hospitality tickets, worth £1,200 each, to the Chelsea vs Arsenal football match in October last year.

Starmer also received clothing from the former chairman of ASOS.

Labour peer Lord Alli gifted him £16,200 worth of “work clothing” as well as £2,485 worth of “multiple pairs of glasses”.

Sir Keir Starmer at a Manchester City vs Arsenal game in March - which he was given two free tickets for worth £900
Sir Keir Starmer at a Manchester City vs Arsenal game in March - which he was given two free tickets for worth £900 (Getty Images)

Lord Alli also gifted Starmer accommodation worth £20,437.28 from 29 May 29 to 13 July 13 this year; it is unclear what accommodation this refers to.

While Sir Keir attended Taylor Swift’s first stop at Wembley, he may be disappointed he missed her playing his favourite song “Change” when she returned in August.

Asked about his opinion of the American’s performance by reporters in June, Sir Keir replied: “She was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.”

“What I learned last night is my daughter knows every album, every song, and every word of every song, and she wasn’t alone among the teenage girls who were there. It was utterly brilliant.”

He added: “I know I will be asked what is my favourite song and I am not going to pretend I have got every album and know every song, although “Change” is the one for obvious reasons.”

Taylor Swift performs on stage at Wembley Stadium on 15 August, 2024 in London
Taylor Swift performs on stage at Wembley Stadium on 15 August, 2024 in London (Getty)

The Labour manifesto, entitled Change, shares its name with a song from Swift’s 2008 album Fearless.

On Monday night’s show, the singer chose the track as one of her two “surprise songs” which form a part of her set.

The choice did not go unnoticed by fans on social media who jokingly speculated the prime minister may have returned to watch the show for a second time.

One person on X/Twitter who attended the concert wrote: “Funniest part about the Eras show on the 19th is that I was sitting next to a man that kinda knew the songs on the setlist like you could tell he recognised them but didn’t know the lyrics that well but somehow he knew EVERY SINGLE LYRIC to CHANGE?????????”

Others soon replied to the post suggesting: “You sat next to the UK prime minister and had no idea.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in