Dear Editor,
Lord Waheed Alli, of Guyanese origin, is the spider at the centre of a web of donor intrigue engulfing Sir Keir Starmer’s new UK Labour government. His gifts to the PM, Government Ministers and the party whilst in Opposition have sparked charges of corruption and cronyism right at the start of the new regime which pledged to be a ‘Change’ from Tory ‘sleaze’. Who is the mystery 59 year old ‘Guyanese’ Peer and how much has he given and who to?
Waheed Alli’s father is from Enmore on the East Coast of Demerara. He migrated to the UK, married a Trinidadian nurse and settled in Croydon Surrey. No silver spoon left in his son’s mouth. Alli left school at 16, worked in a lowly capacity for a magazine, went off to an investment bank before making two other fortunes. One in television – inventing a ground breaking breakfast show ‘The Big Breakfast’ with Sir Bob Geldof – then selling the company for £15m, the other in clothing. Two of his companies, Chorion and Koovs, collapsed but not before Alli had escaped unscathed from under them.
In the process, he has garnered a fortune estimated at £200million. Some of that invested in property – a farm in Kent, a £4m town house in Soho, an £18m penthouse in Covent Garden London and a £2m townhouse in Manhattan. All of these have come in useful for his transactions with Kier Starmer and the Labour party.
Alli has always been a Labour supporter from the days of Tony Blair to Keir Starmer. It is estimated that he has given a total of £700,000 to the party over the years. In return, he gets access to the leadership, a temporary pass to Number Ten Downing Street and a place in the House of Lords. Appointed by then PM Tony Blair as The Lord Alli of Norbury in 1998, he declared himself in the chamber to be the first openly gay Muslim peer. Post Blair, he became Starmer’s fundraiser in chief in 2022 and is credited with filling Labour’s coffers with much business money helping Starmer towards his massive 400 plus seat Commons total in the July 2024 General Election.
It is Lord Alli’s relationship and donations to PM Keir Starmer and others that is under close scrutiny at present. The amounts are staggering.£100,000 to the Starmer Labour leadership campaign in 2022 and much since in ‘office expenses’ to him and other (then) Shadow Cabinet members including David Lammy, his fellow ’Guyanese’, Deputy Leader Angela Rayner, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and others. All are now Government ministers.
But the most surprising and controversial gifts have been to Starmer £76,000 in total, £18,685 to buy refined up market clothing to make him look more Prime Ministerial £2,458 for designer glasses and the real jaw dropper – about £5,000 to Kier’s wife Lady Victoria Starmer to dress her for the First Lady role. She was even given a personal shopper. It seems that initial figure may have been an underestimate with another figure of another £16,000 for Lady Starmer’s clothes just coming to light.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner was given £3,550 – declared initially as ‘office expenses’ for clothing and use of the Manhattan townhouse to see in the New Year 2024 with a ‘friend’. All donations have to be declared to Parliamentary authorities. She put the value of that stay at £1,250 for five days though some observers think it should be much higher.
The Soho townhouse was used in the run up to the General Election by the Labour leadership for planning meetings. The Covent Garden penthouse has become the most controversial of Lord Alli’s gifts in kind. Then Leader of the Opposition Starmer decamped his family there from May 29 to July 13 this year. The Election was on July 4th. Starmer said he did it to allow his sixteen year old son to revise in peace for his GCSE exams away from the Press hothouse surrounding their North London home. Starmer declared the monetary value of this perk to be £20,000. Others think that may be another underestimate. The flat next door is said to be on the market for £1,800 a day.
It has since also emerged that Sir Kier used the penthouse as his ‘home’ for two alternative ‘Prime Ministerial’ broadcasts before the election. The charges of the return of Tory ‘sleaze’ are coming thick and fast. It is the first big crisis of trust for this government. They have just announced, belatedly, that ministers will no longer accept donations for clothes. From Enmore ECD to Soho, Covent Garden London, Manhattan NYC, is a long and profitable journey for Lord Alli. Along the way it may have holed, at least initially, the credibility of the new government.
Sincerely,
John ‘Bill Cotton/Reform’ Mair