2 months ago
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Downing Street has denied the prime minister received free Taylor Swift tickets as a "thank you" for the singer getting a police escort to her concerts at Wembley in August.
Swift was given a motorbike convoy to protect her on the way to the London stadium despite initial reservations about the arrangement from the police.
The prime minister met the singer backstage after the show, it has emerged.
He received four tickets worth £2,800 from the singer’s record label Universal Music for one of her concerts that month. Sir Keir later paid back Universal for the cost of the tickets.
Asked if they were a "thank you" for Downing Street leaning on the Metropolitan Police, the PM’s official spokesman said: “I completely reject that characterisation”.
“It’s ultimately up to the police to take operational decisions in relation to these big events,” he said.
It's understood the prime minister had a 10 minute chat with Swift and her mother Andrea, and the conversation solely covered the Southport attacks, which took place at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop.
Two government sources have told the BBC that senior members of Starmer’s team had contact with the singer’s management over her security arrangements.
Downing Street refused to deny this but a spokesperson said: “It is right for the government to have conversations and a dialogue around the arrangements pertaining to major events to ensure that these go forward safely and smoothly”.
Government sources said Starmer received tickets from Universal Music because the company is based in his central London constituency.
Labour politicians who have received free tickets to Taylor Swift concerts in recent months include chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones and newly-elected MP for Beckenham and Penge Liam Conlon, the son of Starmer’s former chief of staff Sue Gray.
Conlon has not responded to an inquiry from the BBC as to whether he used his two tickets to take his mother to the concert.
Last week it emerged Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan were involved in talks about security around the US superstar's shows over the summer, following the cancellation of her Vienna gigs due to a foiled terror plot.
Cooper and Khan both received free tickets to the Wembley shows.
The home secretary attended with tickets given to her husband Ed Balls, a Good Morning Britain presenter. Khan was given tickets by the Football Association, which owns the stadium.
A source close to the home secretary said last week: "The London Taylor Swift concerts in August came immediately after the cancellation of her Vienna concerts, following the discovery of a terror plot which the CIA’s deputy director said was designed to kill 'tens of thousands' of attendees, and which led to widespread questions about whether the London concerts would go ahead.
"They also came after a fortnight of serious and violent disorder in a number of British towns and cities, which followed the terrible attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.
"In the aftermath of the Manchester Arena attack on the Ariana Grande concert in 2017, security arrangements for events like these are taken extremely seriously.
"Indeed, the government will shortly legislate for Martyn’s Law to improve the security of venues.
"We can make categorically clear that all operational decisions were made by the Metropolitan Police and they do not discuss security arrangements."
The source told the BBC she had tried to declare the ticket on her parliamentary register of interests but was told she was unable to because it was below £300, which is the threshold for declarations, and because it was gifted to her husband rather than to Cooper directly.
The source said she subsequently contacted the Cabinet Office in September to try to include it in her ministerial declarations and had formally done so on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said the force was "operationally independent".
"Our decision-making is based on a thorough assessment of threat, risk and harm and the circumstances of each case," the spokesperson said.
The force added it would not comment on specific details of security arrangements.
A Home Office spokesperson reiterated the Met Police's operational independence but said the mayor and home secretary would be involved in conversations on large-scale events.
The spokesperson also quoted Swift's remarks after the foiled Vienna terror plot: "I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London.
"My team and I worked hand in hand with stadium staff and British authorities every day in pursuit of that goal, and I want to thank them for everything they did for us."
The singer held three shows at Wembley Stadium in June and five in August.
London's City Hall said it would not comment on the Met's security arrangements.
The prime minister was given 10 tickets in total over three concerts.
He has paid back almost £3,400 for four Taylor Swift tickets donated by Universal Music Group and two by the Football Association.
He has not returned £4,000 worth of Taylor Swift tickets received from the Premier League before he became prime minister.
