A UK minister criticised Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves for accepting free tickets to a music concert, highlighting her struggle for popularity in the governing Labour Party just a day before she is due to deliver her spring fiscal statement outlining cuts that are expected to total billions of pounds.
“I don’t personally think it’s appropriate,” Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook said when asked by LBC radio about Ms Reeves receiving free VIP hospitality to a Sabrina Carpenter gig at London’s O2 arena. “If I want to go to a concert at the O2, I’ll pay for it. But individual MPs, individual ministers, make their own decisions.”
The minister’s remarks will be seen as a public rebuke for Ms Reeves and come at a sensitive time with the chancellor due to unveil what’s predicted to be around £10 billion (S$17 billion) of spending cuts on March 26, sparking private criticism from within the government that she is overseeing a return to the austerity policies seen under the Conservatives last decade.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman, Dave Pares, later told reporters that Mr Pennycook “was speaking on his own behalf”, adding that “the ministerial code says it is a matter of individual judgment for each minister concerned”.
The remarks come a day after Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander suggested she wouldn’t have acted as Ms Reeves did, telling Times Radio she hadn’t accepted any free tickets. Asked whether that was because she felt it wasn’t right to do so, she said: “partly because I’ve got a very busy diary and I’ve got to prioritize my time.”
Ms Reeves has come under intense pressure during Labour’s first eight months in power, following an unpopular decision in July to strip most pensioners of winter fuel payments, a tax-raising budget in October that was panned by business and gloomy rhetoric that was seen as denting confidence in the economy.
She has also come under scrutiny over claims she exaggerated her career history in her resume, while in recent weeks, the chancellor faced a cabinet revolt over planned cuts to welfare and government spending.
Ms Reeves defended her decision to accept the free VIP tickets for herself and a family member in an interview with the BBC on March 23. “I do now have security which means it’s not as easy as it would have been in the past to just sit in a concert,” she said. BLOOMBERG
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