Not suitable for taking free tickets, Minister says after Reeves Row

Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook said that he did not think “personally that it is appropriate” to accept free concert tickets after the Chancellor took a family member to see pop star Sabrina Carpenter without paying.

Rachel Reeves defended the tickets for the show in the O2 Arena for security reasons.

On Monday, the prime minister supported his Chancellor and said: “Everything she did is according to the rules.”

Sir Keir Starrer exacerbated the rules for ministers who accepted gifts and hospitality last year after they were returned by senior workers who received the giveaways.

In the ministers it is not forbidden to accept gifts as long as they are explained, but according to the new rules they have to take the need to maintain public trust.

Asked on LBC how often he had recorded free tickets for the O2 arena, which answered in his constituency in Greenwich and Woolwich, Pennycook answered “Zero”.

When Pennycook was asked for Sabrina Carpenter whether Reeves saw free tickets for Sabrina Carpenter, Pennycook said: “I personally don’t think it is appropriate.

“If I want to go to a concert at the O2, I will pay for it – but individual MPs, individual ministers, make their own decisions.

“I think the most important thing is that everything is declared and explained above the board, so that individuals can make their decisions, whether they think it is appropriate to take tickets on occasions.

“I personally didn’t do it, as I said, on the O2 and wouldn’t do it.”

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner insisted that Pennycook, a minister in her department, had not criticized the Chancellor’s actions.

She said that he would not accept the hospitality on the O2 because the event location was in his constituency and this would be a potential conflict of interest.

Rayner, who was criticized himself, including donations, including A stay in a working donor in a New York apartmentsaid that the hospitality “happens throughout the political spectrum throughout the political spectrum”.

She told BBC Radio 4S the World in one, there was “very clear” rules and reeves “she (the tickets) declared in the right way”.

Former Interior Minister Lord Blunkett said, however, that he had not accepted any free tickets if he had been in the government.

“I wouldn’t have done it,” said the Labor Peer of BBC Live.

“I would have been sitting in the audience right now.”

In an interview with the Sunday of the BBC with Laura Kuensberg program, Reeves defended her decision to accept the tickets because she “thought that that was the right thing from a security perspective”.

She said: “I now have security, which means that it is not as easy as it would have been in the past to just sit in a concert, although this would probably be much easier for everyone affected.”

Reeves was also asked why they did not pay the tickets themselves and replied: “These tickets were for which they could pay, so no price for these tickets … they weren’t tickets that they could buy.”

The prime minister told his chancellor on Monday and told the BBC: “We tightened the rules regarding explanations, and everything she did is according to the rules. I would expect that.”

In October, Sir Keir paid £ 6,000 back to gifts and hospitality that he had received since his Prime Minister – including Taylor Swift tickets.

However, he defended the assumption of tickets for the company field in the Emirates stage of Arsenal and said that he could not watch games from the stands for security reasons.

In September, Downing Street, the Prime Minister, the deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and Reeves said would no longer accept any clothing donations.

Mike Wood, Minister of Conservative Shadow Cabinets, said that Reeves “had to bring her addiction to giveaways”.

When he reacted to the comments of the Pennycook and said: “This is an extraordinary blow by the acquiring champagne lifestyle Rachel Reeves has enjoyed it since she became a chancellor.

“If senior labor ministers openly criticize their judgment, it is no surprise that business and investors are also.”

The conservative shadow Minister Andrew Griffith also accepted questions about the acceptance of £ 4,000 hospitality for the BAFTA Awards with his wife in February and 973 pounds for skiing in Davos, Switzerland.

Griffith insisted that his participation in the BAFTAs was “very different” than the free tickets from Reeves and the BBC said at the weekend that “many ministers and people from different parties were there”.

He added that “Swiss parliamentarians” could help secure a financial service contract and to create jobs.