Once again Keir Starmer’s Labour party are saying one thing and doing the opposite.

Whilst Sir Keir has enforced a shadow cabinet boycott of the Qatar World Cup, citing human rights abuses against workers and LGBT people, his top team have accepted thousands of pounds in trips to similarly egregious destinations. Since 2016, they amount to around £60,000…

Amongst the worst offenders are Ed Miliband, who received a hamper worth £2,500 from the Sultan of Brunei – the absolute monarch of a country where sexual relations between men are punishable by death. Miliband says he gave it to charity…

Rosena Allin-Khan diversified her sources of ignoble freebies, raking in over £7,500 from Poland, Bangladesh, Jordan and Qatar. Jon Ashworth and Ian Murray have also each made trips to the World Cup host since 2016. Guido wonders what has changed in Qatar to relegate it from a favourite destination of the shadow cabinet between 2016 and 2021 to utterly unconscionable now…

For the interest of co-conspirators, a more comprehensive list of MP’s travel sponsors is as follows:

• Angela Rayner: £7,500 (Pakistan)
• Shabana Mahmood: £2,515 (China and Bangladesh)
• Bridget Phillipson: £1,070 (Bangladesh)
• Jonathan Ashworth: £9,050 (Qatar and Bangladesh)
• Rosena Allin-Khan: £7,624 (Qatar, Poland, Bangladesh and Jordan)
• Ed Miliband: £7,270 (China and donation from Brunei)
• Steve Reed: £4,800 (Iraq and Bangladesh)
• Wes Streeting: £3,042 (China)
• Lucy Powell: £3,500 (UAE)
• Preet Kaur Gill: £2,405 (Uganda)
• Ian Murray: £7,603 (Qatar)
• Peter Kyle: £2,677 (China)
• Emily Thornberry: £960 (Bangladesh)

Perhaps the hypocrisy of Sir Keir’s virtue-signalling boycott is why he’s been unable to convince Mark Drakeford to follow suit…