Newspaper headlines: ‘Labour U-turn on freebies’ and ‘Fayed was a monster’

Several papers lead on the news that Sir Keir Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves will no longer accept donations for clothes. The Times describes it as a “U-turn on freebies”, after Sir Keir bowed to pressure from senior colleagues. The paper says it is a significant reversal by the prime minister, who had previously defended the £100,000 he had received in donations for clothing gifts and hospitality, insisting it was all properly declared.

The Guardian and Daily Telegraph say the backlash over gifts has threatened to overshadow the Labour conference this weekend. An unnamed Labour MP has told the Telegraph the prime minister should now pay back the donations. The paper says Sir Keir’s new stance does not include giving up hospitality such as football tickets, indicating he will continue to have his Arsenal corporate tickets paid for by others. “Labour’s wardrobe malfunction” is the phrase used by the Financial Times, which says the row threatens to undermine the prime minister’s claim, made just two months ago, that he will lead a government of public service and transparency.

Under the headline “Starmer hit by calamity poll”, the Daily Mail says his popularity has fallen by 26% since the election. In a poll commissioned by the paper, three in five respondents said Sir Keir was failing to clean up British politics. A similar proportion said he should not have accepted gifts or free tickets for football matches. In a separate editorial, the Mail describes the mood as “a national outbreak of buyer’s remorse”. It says most new prime ministers enjoy a honeymoon period, but the results of the poll look more like the start of a divorce petition.

The Daily Mirror raises questions about the funding of Reform UK. The paper says nearly three quarters of donations to Nigel Farage’s party come from wealthy people or companies linked to tax havens. Since 2019 it has received £16.5 million from donors with offshore business interests. Reform UK says all its donations comply with rules and are regularly declared.

Both the Mirror and the Sun highlight comments by lawyers representing women who say they were sexually abused by the late Mohamed Al Fayed. They described him as a monster and likened him to serial sex offenders such as Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. In an editorial, the Mirror says it is too late to put Fayed in the dock, but everything must be done to make it easier for women to report abuse.

Under the headline “EU to land Starmer with trade deal headache”, the i reports Brussels will offer the prime minister a softer Brexit trade deal if he agrees to make it easier for young people to move between Britain and the EU. The paper says the European Commission wants people under the age of 30 from both sides to be able to live in the UK or the EU for up to four years, which means the government will have to take a position on whether to allow potentially hundreds of thousands of young Europeans to move to the UK for extended periods of time.