Sir Keir has just given a pool interview in which he lamented the return of “Tory sleaze” following the Times‘ Scott Benton sting operation, stressing the importance of “rules, regulations and transparency” in politics. As usual for Starmer, it’s all about upholding “principles”…

“…with Scott Benton, we’ve seen a flagrant disregard of those rules, of those principles. It’s not a one-off, only a few weeks ago, we saw three other Tory MPs looking for lucrative jobs… I think all of this shows that the Prime Minister’s lost a grip and if ever we needed further evidence this is it – that Tory sleaze is back.”

It was of course this same adherence to “transparency” that led Starmer to accept £25,000 from Peter Coates, a founder of online betting firm Bet365, during his leadership campaign. A donation he only declared late and only after he’d won, for some reason. It probably didn’t help that his own PPS Carolyn Harris had previously called Bet365 “morally abhorrent”…

Starmer went on to say the government “needs to look at” tightening gambling regulations, and there’s “concern” about online betting. Presumably Labour will call time on their friendship with the Betting & Gaming Council. They even sponsored the Mirror party at Labour conference last year…