Labour donor reluctantly in the spotlight

Lord Alli has long been a Labour supporter and has become has one of the party’s major financial backers, with donations stretching back nearly 20 years.

Although he has been well known in political circles for years, a row over donations has seen the Labour peer thrust into the spotlight.

His gifts to the party have resulted in weeks of uncomfortable headlines for Labour, and scrutiny over his relationship with the party.

It is not attention he has sought, with a source who recently spent time with him saying he is “mortified” and “never wanted to become the story”.

Emerging as a party figure in the New Labour years, Lord Alli campaigned to make Tony Blair leader and was made one of the party’s peers in 1998 at the age of 34, becoming the first openly gay member of the House of Lords.

Electoral records show the TV executive has given the party and Labour candidates hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations and support since 2004.

But it is his donations of clothing, glasses and accommodation for Labour politicians, including Sir Keir Starmer, that have brought him to wider public attention.

The latest story to make the news has been about the tycoon’s decision to lend the Labour leader the use of one of his properties to record a December 2021 Christmas message.

The clip shows Sir Keir speaking from behind a desk, with festive cards and a picture of him and his family in the background.

It has prompted the Conservatives to accuse the now-prime minister of “passing off someone else’s house as his own”, and to suggest the use of the flat should have been declared as a political donation.

This was dismissed by a Labour source, who insisted politicians from all parties routinely used different locations for media appearances and other events.

The source also insisted the use of the flat was not a personal donation to Sir Keir as it was being used to record his response as Labour leader to a government announcement on Covid guidance.

It is not the first time a Labour leader has used Lord Alli’s property for televisual purposes – Ed Miliband prepared for leaders’ debates ahead of the 2015 election in the barn of his house in Kent.

There have been weeks of headlines about the tycoon’s donations to Labour.

His generosity towards the party first made waves last month, when it emerged he had temporarily been given a Downing Street pass following Labour’s return to power.

Further controversy followed with the subsequent revelation he had donated clothes to Sir Keir’s wife, which the prime minister had initially failed to declare in his MP’s transparency register.

It prompted renewed scrutiny of his declared gifts, including £18,000 in work clothes and glasses for Sir Keir, and allowing the Labour leader and his family to stay in a property Lord Alli owns during this year’s election campaign.

Born in south London to a Trinidadian mother and Guyanese father, Lord Alli got his first job aged 16 via a job centre, doing research for Planned Savings magazine.

Initially earning £40 a week, he soon left that role for a much more lucrative career in the City, before later turning his attention to the world of television.

Alongside his then-partner Charlie Parsons and singer Bob Geldof, he helped set up Planet 24, the TV company behind ‘The Big Breakfast’.

The company was later sold to Carlton Communications, where he was a director and worked alongside David Cameron, then an executive at the company.

Entering the House of Lords, he made his first speech as a parliamentarian in favour of lowering the age of consent for gay relationships from 18 to 16.

He was also given a place on Panel 2000, dubbed the “committee for cool”, which advised the New Labour government how to present Britain around the world.

In recent years he has spoken only a handful of times in the House of Lords, although donations to the party have continued.

With his experience in the business and political world, he has been credited with helping the party connect with donors, at a time when it has pivoted towards wealthy individuals and companies for funding.

He holds shareholdings in a range of companies, and directorships in a range of media and fashion firms, prompting questions from the Conservatives over his closeness to the Labour leadership.

But Health Secretary Wes Streeting has described his bankrolling of Labour as a “noble pursuit”, saying that contributing to politics financially was “just like giving to charity, and we don’t recognise that enough”.