“Waheed was an important part of Keir’s team"
Lord Waheed Alli has found himself at the centre of a row over the acceptance of gifts and hospitality by senior MPs in the Labour Party.
Lord Alli is the party’s biggest donor, having donated around £700,000 over the past 20 years.
Questions have been raised over him being handed a Downing Street pass.
It emerged that Lord Alli had gifted Sir Keir eyewear and work clothing worth £18,000, clothes for his wife Lady Victoria Starmer, and a £10,000 donation to the PM’s chief of staff Sue Gray’s son Liam Conlon’s campaign to become a Labour MP.
Despite Sir Keir insisting parliamentary rules were followed, the PM, Rachel Reeves and Angela Raynor have now all said they will not accept any more free clothes from donors.
Lord Alli’s allies describe him as a lifelong Labour supporter who “does not want anything” in return for the donations.
One ally told The Guardian: “Waheed was an important part of Keir’s team during the election campaign, and so it was felt natural that he should get a [Downing Street] pass.
“The thing was, Waheed didn’t really know what he was doing there, so he handed it back.”
According to those involved in Labour’s election campaign, Lord Alli helped fund it and also took on a managerial role with staff.
Who is Lord Alli?
Believed to have a fortune of around £200 million, Lord Alli was born in London to a Trinidadian mother and a Guyanese father.
After leaving school aged 16, Alli got a £40-per-week role as a researcher for the Planned Savings magazine.
This led to him being offered an investment banking job with Save & Prosper, later establishing himself as a consultant reportedly charging £1,000 per day.
Until the age of 26, Alli reportedly handed 80% of his pay to his family.
Alli then launched the media company Planet 24 with Bob Geldof and Charlie Parsons.
He and Parsons, who also became life partners, were behind a new wave of television shows, including The Big Breakfast and The Word, and in the late 90s were stalwarts on the media set, throwing parties at their Kent mansion.
After helping with Labour’s 1997 campaign, Lord Alli was sought out by Tony Blair for advice on young people.
In 2011, Lord Alli said his politics were “the politics of sexuality or equality” and was reportedly introduced to Labour by his neighbour, Labour MP Emily Thornberry.
As a peer, Lord Alli used his position to lead the battle over the repeal of Margaret Thatcher’s notorious Section 28 legislation which had banned local authorities from “promoting homosexuality”, and advocated for lowering the age of consent for gay men from 18 to 16.
Lord Alli became chair of fashion giant Asos before selling half of his stake to set up a firm which purchased the rights to Beatrix Potter’s work.
At the same time, Lord Alli continued to be closely involved with Labour and those involved with the party, despite considering sitting as an independent during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
In 2015, he donated £26,500 to leadership hopefuls Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall.
The following year, Lord Alli gave £10,000 to Owen Smith before ultimately handing £100,000 for Sir Keir’s campaign.
But the donations have not always been political.
In 2023, he gave an interest-free loan of £1.2 million to Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh so she could move house to care for her sister Margaret, who died in 2023 following a brain tumour diagnosis.
Since 2022, Lord Alli has reportedly been central to raising funds for Labour, taking an unpaid role as chair of general election fundraising, with his team meeting up to four times a week at his London penthouse prior to the election.
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