Labour leader Keir Starmer was dragged into a row over Party funding today, after revelations emerged yesterday that senior shadow cabinet members had received hundreds of thousands of pounds of donations in ‘dark money’ from a shell company, despite the Labour Leader himself advocating for “strict rules about donations from shell companies”.

Now the Labour campaigning group Momentum is demanding that the MPs ‘come clean’ and return the donations, and that the Labour leader commits to a series of tough new measures to ‘clean up politics’. The grassroots campaign is mobilising its supporters, numbering in the tens of thousands, to lobby Starmer in support of the proposals, and pressure Streeting to return the cash. A motion is also planned along the same lines for local Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) to pass.

Sky News’ Westminster Accounts yesterday revealed that the Labour MPs Wes Streeting, the Shadow Health Secretary, Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, and Dan Jarvis, the Party’s former Mayor for South Yorkshire, all accepted donations in the tens or hundreds of thousands from the MPM Connect Ltd company. MPM Connect has no staff or website – the common definition of a shell company. 

Labour’s 2019 manifesto proposed a series of bold new measures to ‘change how politics is funded’, such as banning donations from tax avoiders and tax evaders, closing loopholes that “allow the use of shell companies to funnel dark money into politics” and introducing a lobbying register. Momentum is demanding Starmer recommit to all these policies.

Starmer has made political weather of his commitment to integrity and standards in public life amidst repeated Tory sleaze scandals, making a speech to outline his Contract with the British People which stressed “a binding commitment about decency and standards in public life.”  More recently, the Party restated its plans for an ‘Integrity and Ethics Commission’.

Kate Dove, Momentum Co-Chair, said: “It’s no surprise to see Tory MPs dominating the Westminster Accounts list – everyone knows the Conservative Party is up to its neck in sleaze. What is shocking, however, is that Labour MPs are joining them in accepting dark money donations – even senior members of the shadow cabinet like Wes Streeting and Yvette Cooper. 

“Keir Starmer has promised a new era of integrity and decency in public life – we’re calling on him to live up to that high standard by recommitting to policies which will clean up politics, like banning the use of shell companies to funnel dark money into politics. But Labour needs to practise what we preach, too. That should start with Streeting, Cooper and Jarvis coming clean and returning the cash supplied to them through the MPM shell company.

“But it shouldn’t end there – if he is serious about restoring trust to public life, Keir Starmer should commit to kicking corporate interests out of political financing altogether.”

The concerns come amid news reports that Labour is seeking to raise financial backing from billionaires to replace the money lost from subscription income, as Party membership has declined in the last two years. Gambling executives are among those who have donated.

• Lobby the Labour leadership over the issue of dark money here

Image: Momentum