Revealed: Premier League's £100,000 'gift' operation targeted at cabinet and MPs amid battle over new regulator | Party financing

Keir Starmer faces a new dispute in the gift scandal As revealed, the Premier League and major clubs handed out gifts worth more than £100,000 to MPs, including the Prime Minister and nine sitting cabinet ministers, during the battle for a new football regulator.

Premier League officials organized a series of giveaways as they warned that proposals for a strict watchdog could weaken the appeal of football in the UK. MPs enjoyed hospitality at the games, invitations to the Brit Awards and tickets to Taylor Swift concerts.

Analysis by Observer reveals more than a third of the new cabinet and at least 60 deputies, including 41 from Labourhave benefited from the generosity of the Premier League and its football clubs over the last three years. Hospitality and tickets were worth up to £4,000 for individual events.

Clive Betts, a Labor MP and chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on football, said the gifts were “clearly part of a campaign”. He said: “I don't think they can influence the regulator that is being created, but they can influence the powers it has.”

Labor is now facing a battle over its plans to strengthen the financial powers of the proposed watchdog after the Conservative government's football governance bill ran out of parliamentary time due to the election. Premier League bosses are pushing to dilute his powers.

The proposal for a new regulator was made in 2021 after a football governance review by former sports minister Tracey Crouch. A watchdog would have powers to demand real-time financial information from clubs and examine owners' finances.

The following year, the Premier League and its clubs, who oppose the plans, offered MPs gifts worth more than £11,500 in 2022, rising to at least £28,000 in 2023 and more than £68,000 in the first nine months of 2024.

This compares with gifts to Premier League MPs and their clubs worth less than £5,500 in 2018, a Observer as has been revealed by the analysis of the register of interests of the deputies. All profits were correctly disclosed in the parliamentary register of interests.

In February of last year, the day when The white paper was published. As he outlined plans for a powerful new regulator, Jonathan Reynolds, now business secretary, accepted two tickets and hospitality worth £1,000 from the Premier League for the Europa League match between Manchester United and Barcelona at Old Trafford.

Reynolds said last month that there “There is no problem” with parliamentarians accepting hospitality.saying that “it will always be the case that people from public life are invited to certain events.”

Starmer and six other cabinet ministers also accepted free tickets to Premier League or their club matches during the lobbying campaign.

As MPs debated the Football Governance Bill earlier this year, the Premier League provided MPs with complimentary tickets to non-football events worth thousands of pounds.

In 2024, the Premier League gave five MPs tickets to the Brit Awards and six Labor MPs, including Starmer, with tickets to see Swift's Eras tour worth £14,830.

The MPs who attended the Brit Awards in March were Pat McFaddenthe Cabinet Office minister, a key Starmer ally; Liz Kendall, Work and Pensions Secretary; Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology; and Rupa Huq, then a member of the sports and cultural media committee.

Jake Richards, elected Labor MP on July 4, also attended. The total value of the tickets was £8,500.

Ahead of a House of Commons debate on the Football Governance Bill in April, the Premier League held a parliamentary reception with drinks and canapés.

Richard Masters, chief executive of the Premier League, warned assembled MPs and colleagues that “we are taking a huge risk with a very successful industry”.

A key battleground will be whether the government gives the regulator power over the Premier League's actions. parachute payments for relegated clubs. Many MPs support a proposal to include these payments in the regulator's powers to intervene in how Premier League funds are redistributed to other clubs, but this is fiercely opposed by Premier League bosses.

Talking to him Observer,Crouch, a former sports minister, said she hoped parliament would pass a new football governance bill that would allay any concerns about lobbying.

She said: “There would be a huge uproar if the Prime Minister and his team did a U-turn on their promise to create a regulator.”

Labor MP Huq said she had accepted an invitation to the Brit Awards and was then shocked when she was told how brave it was to include it in her register of interests.

She said: “It seems strange in the feverish run-up to greater football regulation that the Premier League is offering tickets outside its usual football remit.”

Martin Bell, former war reporter and independent MP, said: “Lobbying is part of politics, but it becomes suspect when money changes hands or there are benefits in kind. They must be declared, but I think it is not wise to accept them. Parliamentarians must look at their own constituents and know what they will think of their conduct.”

A Labor source said laws would be passed introducing a new regulator. “We are regulating the industry and hospitality doesn't change that,” the source said.

Starmer has promised to review the rules on accepting gifts and has We have already returned £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality, including the value of tickets to Swift concerts funded by the Premier League.

A Premier League spokesperson said: “The Premier League runs a stakeholder engagement program with a wide range of people, including parliamentarians and officials. “Like all industries, including many football organisations, this is normal practice.”