Behind closed doors some Labour figures are unsettled by the perception that Lord Alli has effectively privatised the Labour frontbench. Along with hundreds of thousands in donations his properties have been used extensively by the Labour leadership for numerous roles, as Guido revealed…
The “he doesn’t have any agenda because he’s already a peer” spin, which claims he doesn’t intervene politically apart from ‘being Labour’, took a hit on Friday when Guido revealed Alli argued against the removal of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Almost zero information exists in the public domain about Alli’s role in the Middle East, which includes his multiple meetings with Assad…
Guido can reveal that Alli was also dispatched to Iraq by No 10 to meddle in the January 2005 elections. Blair’s Downing Street pledged clandestine support to Iyad Allawi, the former member of Saddam’s security services who had earlier been chosen as interim Prime Minister by the coalition forces…
After the Labour lord was installed in Allawi’s office there was a huge increase in advertising spending on his campaign. Allawi dominated the Iraqi media landscape from that point on, leading Al Jazeera to brand him an “American puppet.” Jack Fairweather, author of ‘A War of Choice: the British in Iraq’ wrote that Alli and former Labour Party General Secretary Margaret McDonagh, his partner for the mission, suggested the “classic New Labour ploys” of polling data analysis and “working with focus groups to coordinate campaign messaging“, which were received with zero enthusiasm by Allawi’s campaign team.
By the end the Allawi campaign was a foreseeable failure, gaining a mere 13.8% of the vote. The winner was Ibrahim Al-Jaafari – the candidate of the Shiite religious establishment. Predictably Labour’s intervention to support Allawi damaged UK relations with new PM Al-Jaafari, against UK interests…
What was Alli, a TV executive best known for producing ‘The Big Breakfast’, doing intervening in foreign elections on Labour’s behalf? Why has his role been kept out of the public eye? Who paid for it? Why did Alli go on to have multiple meetings with Assad in Syria? There is much more to discover…
When the Lord Alli scandal first broke – over his acquisition of a Downing Street pass – Labour’s explanation was that the donor was “doing some transition work with us.” The key word suggesting the transition between opposition and government…
Close to a general election, the main opposition party is offered a series of secret handover talks with senior officials – designed to prepare them should they win. Guido hears from multiple well-placed sources that some of those talks took place at Lord Alli’s properties, potentially including his extravagant penthouse. Confidential government handover work carried out in a political donor’s property…
The attendees would have included Keir Starmer, Sue Gray, and Simon Case. The meetings took place in the rough six month period before the election. On at least one occasion other officials are said to have been present, including Gray ally Darren Tierney, who has run the Propriety and Ethics (now Propriety and Constitution) Group in the Cabinet Office since March 2021, though reports are unconfirmed. Government business taking place at a top donor’s house would be highly irregular, especially given the sensitive nature of the talks…
It’s well-known that the confidential access talks “usually happen away from departments” – that is understood to usually mean a low key neutral meeting space. Not the luxury penthouses of ultra-rich, heavily politically-involved donors who will go on to gain access to Downing Street…
The properties are said to be one of the Labour leadership’s favourite bolt holes for high-level confidential meetings. Guido asked the Cabinet Office if any of the talks took place at his property to which a government spokesman said: “We don’t comment on access talks.” That is not a denial…
Every Labour-briefed media profile of Waheed Alli spins that he is basically a harmless pile of money committed to one aim: a Labour victory. Starmer has repeatedly said Lord Alli got nothing in return for his support…
But the most cursory check of Alli’s parliamentary record (something not done by gaggles of Lobby journalists) reveals that he has strident and marginal views on one of the most controversial foreign policy issues of the last few years: Syria. He boasted in a House of Lords debate:
“I have visited Syria on a number of occasions and held talks with President Assad on several.”
Alli made the comments at the height of the Syrian civil war. He was speaking as the Cameron government was blocked from bombing President Assad’s Syria – after the tyrant unleashed chemical weapons on his own people. Simultaneously, Lord Alli was urging the West against taking military action in response:
“What happens when and if the Assad Government are removed? What is left behind? From my experience, it is soldiers with guns but no paymaster… I have listened to the list of things that this action is not intended to do—the same list that the Prime Minister gave in the other place. But that has not been the mood music being played by this Government over recent months. It is that mood music that frightens us all and it should be turned down.”
The next day’s tight Commons vote against action weakened the UK’s relationship with the US and France, as well as diminishing its moral authority on the international stage. The UK was reduced to a lame duck on the issue of Assad’s murderous dictatorship. On the Labour side, Corbyn would have been very pleased with Lord Alli’s position…
What was Alli doing meeting with bloodthirsty dictator Bashar al Assad on multiple occasions? In what capacity did he make his visits to Syria? Will Keir Starmer disown Lord Alli’s position on the Assad Government? Has Lord Alli made any representations to the Labour leadership over Syria? The Alli donor scandal has just taken a very unsettling turn…
UPDATE: Tories call on Starmer to distance himself from Alli and his position on Assad’s Government. A Conservative spokesperson said:
“Not only does this revelation raise some serious questions about Lord Alli’s relationship with President Assad’s regime, it puts Keir Starmer’s judgement even further in doubt.
“Starmer should disown Lord Alli’s position on the Assad Government immediately.”
When Starmer revealed he had “moved” into Alli’s £18 million Covent Garden penthouse for 45 nights this summer—leaning on his son as a convenient excuse—many were left scratching their heads at the astonishing bargain he managed to secure. According to his registered interests, Starmer valued the accommodation donation at £20,437.28, covering his stay from May 29 to July 13, 2024. Quite the deal for a sprawling 4,860 square-foot residence right in heart of Soho…
To put it into perspective, renting a mere 800-square-foot luxury apartment in Soho for the same duration could set you back over £31,000, at market prices. A massively larger £18 million property, with three en suite bedrooms, would be considerably more…
MPs are meant to declare the use of accommodation at market rates. A conservative 5% yield on Lord Alli’s place would typically fetch an annual rent of around £900,000—meaning Starmer’s six-week sojourn could be worth a staggering £110,966. Given that MPs are required to declare the market value of any donations, the figure of £20,000 for such an opulent central penthouse is a massive under-declaration…
Number 10 also continues to spin the narrative that Starmer didn’t need to declare his supposedly “one-off” Covid video filmed at Alli’s residence (it’s not a one off, as Guido has reported). Starmer claims it was worth less than £300 – therefore did not need to be declared. But it is impossible to find even a basic studio in Covent Garden for that price. A day’s rental for a recording studio in Soho can easily start at around £650, and that is without the technical equipment. There is no way using Lord Alli’s house as a tv studio for a BBC One broadcast has a market value of under £300…
Labour insiders say Alli’s penthouse study is armed to the hilt with full broadcast equipment akin to a top-end media studio. The parliamentary authorities are going to have to investigate…
UPDATE: The luxury penthouse next to Alli’s goes for £1,800 a day. And it’s only 2,000 square foot compared to Alli’s 4,800 square foot pad….
Last night, Guido revealed that Keir Starmer may have breached electoral law not once, but twice, all while enjoying Lord Alli’s swanky £18 million penthouse. Starmer’s nomination papers claim he lived in Holborn and St. Pancras, but we know he was holed up in Alli’s pad over in the Cities of London and Westminster. He claimed he moved so his son could study for his exams —though even those dates don’t add up. If true, this little arrangement wouldn’t be counted in Labour’s general election expenses… unless, of course, Starmer was using it for a bit of campaigning on the side…
Now others are starting to smell blood. On BBC Question Time, Reform UK’s chairman Zia Yusuf weighed in, saying:
“There is now news just hitting the wires a few hours ago that potentially the Prime Minister has breached electoral law by misstating where his residence was… he was talking about moving to Lord Alli’s apartment apparently because [of] his son but if you spend time there overnight potentially there is a case to be had.”
The sheer hypocrisy of Starmer, who berated the Tories for breaching Covid guidance and hammered them on declaring donations improperly is one thing that cannot be ignored. Though if Starmer broke electoral law, the position of the so-called “forensic lawyer” would be shakier than ever. Zia pressed Labour MP Nick Thomas-Symonds last night, asking, “if it is the case that Starmer breached electoral law, would you call on him to resign?” Nick didn’t have an answer…
The Starmers say they moved into Lord Alli’s £18 million penthouse in Soho on 29th May and ceased to use it on 13th July this year. They valued this period of use at a bargain £20,437.28. Starmer said this week:
“I promised him we would move somewhere, get out of the house and go somewhere where he could be peacefully studying”… “if you are putting to me Beth that I should have stayed in my Kentish Town home and disrupted my son’s GCSEs… then I think you should put that to me.”
This suggests Starmer was actively living in the penthouse for the entirety of the period – using it as his primary residence. This would have started just before nominations opened for the General Election on June 4th….
When in 2017 UKIP’s Paul Nuttall claimed on his nomination papers he lived at a house he hadn’t yet moved into, it was made clear that the address had to be the place where he was actually resident at the moment of nomination. Peter Stanyon, deputy chief executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators, said: “The general provision will clearly be that it needs to be a factual statement made at the point the nomination was being submitted.” Starmer’s nomination paper claims he was living at an address in Holborn and St. Pancras on that day. But we now know he was at Alli’s penthouse is in the Cities of London and Westminster…
Nuttall was investigated by police. He managed to prove to them that he used his house regularly as a “base” in the campaign for the 2017 Stoke By-Election. Starmer has accidentally admitted that he lived in a different property to the one on his declaration – did he campaign from his Kentish Town house? Downing Street will have to say so…
In addition, Starmer’s stated explanation for his use of the donated penthouse is that he needed the accommodation for his son’s exams. In itself this would mean it is not subject to Labour’s national general election campaign expense. But it would be if he held any campaign meetings there, used the property for campaign purposes or did campaign work there…
It could also shift into the local expense in his capacity as an MP. There is no declaration of the donation during a regulated election period on Starmer’s Electoral Commission entries. Starmer’s period of residence at Lord Alli’s therefore may have breached electoral law. Twice…
