Yvette Cooper attended Taylor Swift concert after talks about popstar’s security
The Home Secretary tried to disclose the free tickets she received for the concert, but was told it was below the threshold for doing so.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper attended one of Taylor Swift’s Wembley concerts with her husband after being involved in talks about the singer’s police escort.
Ms Cooper attended the gig with her husband Ed Balls, a former Labour minister, who was offered free tickets by the chief executive of Universal Music, the PA news agency understands.
She had been involved in talks about security for Swift’s London concerts with London mayor Sadiq Khan, but the ultimate decision to give the singer a high-level escort was made by senior police.
The Shake It Off star was given a motorbike convoy to protect her on the way to Wembley despite initial police reservations, The Sun reported.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said the escort was not the result of “undue influence” from senior politicians attending the concerts.
Ms Cooper is understood to have contacted parliamentary authorities in early September to register the tickets.
But she was told they would not be declarable because they did not meet the cost threshold, and because they were a gift to her husband, rather than her.
The tickets have instead been declared to the Home Office, and the declaration is expected to be published alongside other ministerial interests by the Cabinet Office in November.
Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Khan and Ms Nandy were among the other senior Labour figures given free tickets to Eras Tour shows, but the Culture Secretary said there was no link between the hospitality they received and the police protection for Swift.
“I utterly reject that there’s been any kind of wrongdoing or undue influence in this case,” she told Sky News.
She said the Home Secretary would be involved in discussions about the security risk, particularly given that Swift’s shows in Vienna were cancelled because of a terror threat.
Ms Nandy told Sky News: “When you have major events, whether in London or in other parts of the UK, the Home Secretary will be involved in a conversation where there is a security risk.
“I also know that she doesn’t have the power, nor would she use the power, to insist that any individual got the top level of private security arrangements. That is an operational matter for the police, not for the Government.
“The police made the decision. Ultimately it is their decision and nobody else can make it.”
The Sun reported that the Metropolitan Police’s special escort group had initially been reluctant to give the Cruel Summer singer the kind of protection normally reserved for senior royalty and politicians.
A Met Police spokesman said the force was “operationally independent”, and that its decision making was “based on a thorough assessment of threat, risk and harm and the circumstances of each case”.
The Home Office said the popstar’s security had been an “operational decision for the police”.
The Prime Minister has paid back almost £3,400 for four Taylor Swift tickets donated by Universal Music Group and two from the Football Association.
