PUBLISHED: 22:30, 23 September 2024 | UPDATED: 00:57, 24 September 2024
Given that all roads in Labour’s cronyism scandal lead to the fabulously wealthy media tycoon Lord Alli, he has understandably kept a low profile at conference.
But then he has also kept a spectacularly low profile in the House of Lords since being elevated by Tony Blair in 1998.
After Queen Elizabeth II died two years ago, Alli admitted as much when peers were paying their tributes to the late monarch. ‘My Lords I have not spoken in your Lordships’ House for many years,’ he started.
He can say that again. In the past six years, Alli has spoken only three times and for a total of ten minutes. In the past decade, he’s spoken barely a dozen times.
Which is surprising for a man who, as the freebie scandal shows, is so assiduously active in politics. He’s splashed vast quantities of cash on Labour’s front bench, even to the extent of providing Sir Keir Starmer with thousands of pounds worth of designer specs.
Don’t expect Alli to raise his profile in the Lords after the Wardrobegate fiasco, though. Starmer’s threatened to boot out members who rarely attend or speak, but I doubt Alli’s worried. The £700,000 he’s given Labour over the years should keep him in ermine.
At a fringe meeting, Health Secretary Wes Streeting was making light of the stories about the malign influence of Downing Street chief of staff Sue Gray, who is conspicuously absent from the conference. ‘Sue Gray has been hiding Lord Lucan,’ he joked ‘She has been seen with Elvis.’ Few laughed.
Marr revels in Labour drama
At a noisy reception for the New Statesman, its star columnist Andrew Marr recalled the same party last year when he teased Starmer about the dull government he was likely to lead.
‘We’ve had Partygate, Wallpapergate. How will Labour get journalists interested in its affairs after all that?’
Weeks of headlines about cronyism, free clothes and holidays had Marr observing at this year’s bash that Labour was providing plenty of news after all: ‘I never thought you would make it so easy for us.’
Labour grandees should take a leaf from the book of new Dover and Deal MP, Mike Tapp. Asked if he paid for his own suits, he replied. ‘Yes, two for the price of one in a shop in Jermyn Street in London. Two suits for £400.’ He wasn’t the only MP to have spotted the bargain. Kwasi Kwarteng, Chancellor in Liz Truss’s short-lived administration, was buying two at the same time.
Labour conference organisers placed the stall for the Communist, Israel-bashing Morning Star newspaper directly opposite Labour Friends of Israel. The peace process has to start somewhere. ‘We’re getting along really well! I lent them some tape,’ said one toiler on the Israeli side.
On ITV’s Loose Women, Dame Joan Collins talked about her time on TV soap Dynasty.
‘We had to go and find our costumes. Of course I do like shopping, so I spent a lot of time in Saks and Neimans [department store]. You’d go in and you’d get a personal shopper and say: “I’ll have that and that and that and that.” ’
A bit like our Prime Minister.
Actor Steve Nallon, who voiced Mrs Thatcher on Spitting Image, posted this picture on social media with the accompanying message: ‘I donated an old
Mrs T outfit of mine (the blue suit on the right, not the skimpy black lacey thing) to Southend-on-Sea Museum for an exhibition. But perhaps it might have been better giving it to Lady Starmer. I mean, by now I’d probably have a seat in the House of Lords.’
Comments