Angela Rayner is facing fresh questions over a freebie holiday to New York paid for by a Labour donor after it emerged that her ex-boyfriend joined her in the Big Apple.
The Deputy Prime Minister is already facing questions over a five-night New Year stay in a £2million apartment owned by Lord Alli.
Now it has emerged that married Sam Tarry flew out to join her for the festive stay in the 56th floor Manhattan apartment, with a gym, jacuzzi and pool.
The leftwinger, who was sacked as a junior minister for supporting rail strikes, was MP for Ilford South at the time, but was deselected ahead of the July election.
He paid for his own flights but shared the accommodation paid for by the Labour peer, who is at the centre of a row over donations he made to Sir Keir and Victoria Starmer for clothes, the Sunday Times reported.
This morning Ms Rayner insisted that she had not broken any rules over what she said had been a ‘private holiday’. She said Lord Alli was a ‘friend’ as well as a donor but she declared the break in any case because he was also a donor.
She told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: ‘I don’t believe I broke any rules.
‘I had the use of the apartment and I disclosed that I had the use of the apartment.
‘In fact, I think I was overly transparent because I think it was important despite it being a personal holiday because that person, as a friend, had already donated to me in the past for my deputy leadership.’
The Deputy Prime Minister is already facing questions over a five-night New Year stay in a £2million apartment owned by Lord Alli.
Now it has emerged that married Sam Tarry flew out to join her for the festive stay in the 56th floor Manhattan apartment, with a gym, jacuzzi and pool.
The leftwinger, who was sacked as a junior minister for supporting rail strikes, was MP for Ilford South at the time, but was deselected ahead of the July election.
He paid for his own flights but shared the accommodation paid for by the Labour peer, who is at the centre of a row over donations he made to Sir Keir and Victoria Starmer for clothes, the Sunday Times reported.
Ms Rayner and Mr Tarry were reported to have split in November last year. But in May this year Mr Tarry, who has two children with his ex-wife, was seen leaving Ms Rayner’s flat on Tuesday wearing the same blue suit he had worn the day before.
Ms Rayner, 44, previously described him as her ‘soulmate’. But the couple broke up last year after being together for two years.
The Labour Party’s first annual conference since it swept to power will begin on Sunday after Sir Keir Starmer promised he would protect public services from future austerity.
The Liverpool gathering was originally expected to be a victory lap for the party after its landslide success at the general election.
But Labour is now braced for a clash with the unions over its plans to limit winter fuel payments to only the poorest pensioners.
The embattled Prime Minister is meanwhile seeking to move on from rows about internal strife at No 10 and donors.
Sir Keir is already facing a meltdown as he kicks off his first Labour conference in power less than three months after an historic election landslide.
The PM has admitted he needs to stabilise his government as he struggles to contain fury over ‘freebies’, a wave of bitter briefing about his chief aide Sue Gray, and the backlash at axing winter fuel payments.
Sir Keir is in Liverpool for the first day of the annual gathering, but hopes that it might be a victory lap after the extraordinary victory in July have been summarily dashed.
A grim poll by Opinium found Sir Keir’s personal ratings have plummeted by 45 points since the summer, with only 24 per cent of voters saying he is doing a good job.
Half of the public viewed him negatively, taking his overall net rating to minus 26 – slightly worse than Rishi Sunak at minus 25. Sir Keir’s first approval rating as PM was plus 19.