PM defends using house owned by Lord Alli for ‘work from home’ Covid video

The Prime Minister has defended using a house owned by Lord Alli for a video urging people to work from home during the Covid pandemic.

Sir Keir Starmer said the idea it was his home was “farcical”, despite there being photos of his family and Christmas cards behind him during the recording, made in December 2021 during the Omicron variant wave.

Instead of it being recorded at his home in north London, it was filmed at Lord Alli’s flat in Covent Garden, central London.

Speaking to journalists in New York during a visit to the United Nations, Sir Keir said: “Anybody who thinks that I was pretending it was my own home, the idea that I’ve got Union Jacks by my fireplace at home or that I would invite a bunch of you lot into my living room to have a look around… the idea that I was trying to pretend that it was my home is pretty farcical.

“And no, I’m not going to be inviting you in to film me in front of my fireplace. I’m very sorry, that’s about the last thing I’d do.”

Five days before the broadcast, Boris Johnson’s government had introduced new guidance asking people to work from home to limit the spread of the Omicron variant.

In the video, Sir Keir said: “At times like this, we must all put the national interest first and play by the rules.”

He added: “Getting jabbed, wearing masks and working from home if you can will really help prevent infections and help prevent the NHS being overwhelmed.”

Speaking on Thursday, he added: “I understand why the public have questions about this. I think the best thing we can do is to explain the circumstances and be absolutely clear that nothing wrong has been done here.

“Everybody has complied with all of the rules. Sometimes it takes time to go through the individual examples, which may or may not put the context for people to see and make their own judgments.”

The Prime Minister said Lord Alli was motivated to donate and offer accommodation as he wanted Labour to win the election.

“He is a Labour lord and he wanted a Labour victory and that was his sole motivation.

“And the fact that he is already a Labour lord takes away any sense that there’s a reward for him. He wanted a Labour victory that motivated him, and he got one,” Sir Keir said.

He has already defended using Lord Alli’s house so his son could revise for his GCSEs during the general election campaign. He declared £20,000 for accommodation from the peer.

He told Sky News: “My son happened to be in the middle of his GCSEs.

“That means there are a lot of journalists outside the front door and in the street.”

He said he is “not complaining” but “if you’re 13, as my girl is, if you’re 16 as my boy is, that’s quite hard to navigate when you’re concentrating on GCSEs”.

Sir Keir explained: “I said, ‘we’re going to get you out of here and get you somewhere where you can just study and get to school and back without having to go through all of that’.

“And that’s when someone says, well, in which case I can make this flat available to you.

“It’s safe, secure, he can get on.”

The Prime Minister later went on: “I do think sometimes it’s important just to look behind the number and say, ‘what was the human story behind’.”

Sir Keir refused to speak about rumoured infighting in Downing Street between his chief of staff, Sue Gray, and colleagues including his director of political strategy, Morgan McSweeney.

He said: “I’m not discussing individual members of staff. I wouldn’t do that in relation to any member of staff, I’m not going to break that rule. That’s not a new rule for me. It’s a rule I had in opposition. It’s a rule I had when I was Director of Public Prosecutions, when we, from time to time, had interest in senior staff.

“I think that I owe it to all staff to respect and protect them, and that means I will never discuss them in a session like this.”