Fury as Home Secretary watched Taylor Swift for FREE days after urging cops to give star VIP blue light escort
THE Home Secretary watched Taylor Swift for free — days after urging the Met to give the megastar an unprecedented VIP police escort.
Yvette Cooper and hubby Ed Balls took the £170 Wembley freebies from Swift’s music label Universal.
Details of the jolly emerged last night.
It comes after we first revealed a row over security for the singer.
Swift’s mum and manager Andrea had threatened to axe the August shows unless a police convoy was provided.
It followed a foiled suicide bomb plot before a Swift gig in Vienna a week earlier.
The Met’s Special Escort Group of motorcyclists were initially reluctant to grant the VIP service, which comes at huge expense to taxpayers and is normally reserved for senior royals and politicians.
But today we can reveal it was finally granted after talks at the top of government with the Met.
Insiders say the PM’s then-Chief of Staff Sue Gray played a key role in defusing the row.
A Downing Street source defended the PM’s team getting involved, saying the August concerts were “a major event for the country”.
The PM’s spokesman said: “You would expect there to be meetings between the Government, police and the mayor. I don’t have any details on the specifics of that engagement.”
Sir Keir has been hit with weeks of criticism over him and ministers accepting hospitality and free gifts.
Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick blasted last night: “This is a government so shameless they’d seemingly sell our police for a couple of concert tickets and a friendship bracelet from billionaires.”
He added: “Three months into office and they are unable to Shake Off the stench of sleaze.”
Sky News reported that Mr Balls’ tickets were worth £170 each — less than the £300 that would make it a declarable expense.
Ms Cooper told the Cabinet Office about the jolly on September 23, a week after she went to the gig.
She offered to declare the donation in the MPs’ register of interests last month but officials confirmed that she did not need to. She made the declaration yesterday.
We exclusively revealed yesterday how she and London Mayor Sadiq Khan personally intervened in the request for a blue-lights escort.
On August 17, ahead of Swift’s 7pm live show, police motorcycle riders were seen speeding up the road to the back of Wembley Stadium.
They blocked traffic and told passers-by to stand back. More police riders were seen with Swift’s security vehicles as the convoy entered the stadium.
Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly yesterday slammed the move.
He demanded Labour explain why taxpayers funded the VIP convoy.
And he warned the Met’s Special Escort Group (SEG) should not be used “by private individuals or as traffic assistants for popstars”.
Before Ms Cooper’s tickets declaration emerged, Mr Cleverly wrote to her and asked: “Did you or any of your ministers speak to (Met chief)
Sir Mark Rowley about protection for Ms Swift? What advice did you or your ministers receive from Sir Mark or other senior Met Police officers?”
He added: “The role of the SEG is to serve the state and provide professional mobile protection for royalty, senior ministers, and at times, guests of government and state. It is not for use by private individuals.”
This is a government so shameless they’d seemingly sell our police for a couple of concert tickets and a friendship bracelet from billionaires
Robert Jenrick
Meanwhile, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told Sky News she rejected any wrongdoing by the Government or Labour mayor Mr Khan.
Ms Nandy said: “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 she (Ms Cooper) 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.”
Ms Nandy told Sky presenter Kay Burley: “Most of Sky News were at these events in these same boxes as well. You were there.”
Ms Burley hit back: “I paid for my tickets up front eight months earlier. So please, don’t do that.”
Fired-up Ms Nandy argued that as long as ministers declare their freebie tickets on the Government register of interests, they should be allowed to enjoy them.
She said: “People can and will judge for themselves. It’s fair that they do that.” Sir Keir has offered to refund free tickets worth £4,000.
But he is not paying back the cost of four tickets for a Swift show at Wembley in June which he attended with wife Victoria.
FREEBIES ROW
Meanwhile, Ms Nandy has denied a conflict of interest for attending a Swift concert as a guest of the Football Association.
She held meetings at the stadium in the summer amid plans for an independent regulator to help oversee clubs in England’s top five tiers.
Ms Nandy explained she turned down offers of tickets from other stakeholders discussing the proposed legislation because the FA offered a more neutral position.
Asked if there was a clash, she said: “No. This is precisely the reason why I didn’t go with any of the other stakeholders.
There are different views across the footballing world… I went with the FA who are supportive of the Bill but have the interests of the whole of football at heart.”
Amid the row over freebies, the Government has now said ministers will have to declare hospitality linked to their government job in their MPs’ register too.