By the time Keir Starmer entered Downing Street, his ally and donor Waheed Alli had become so much a part of the Labour operation that no one at the top of the party was surprised to see him floating around the building. According to one person who knows both men. However, the millionaire business executive was surprised to find himself there.
“Waheed was an important part of Keir’s team during the election campaign, and so it was felt natural that he should get a pass,” they said. “The thing was, Waheed didn’t really know what he was doing there, so he handed it back.”
Alli’s access to Downing Street has come under scrutiny in recent weeks since he used it to help organise a reception for fellow donors in the garden of No 10. Labour says he held the pass to help with “transition work” once the party came into government, though it will not say what that work involved.
The controversy has intensified over the last 48 hours after it emerged Labour may have broken parliamentary rules by not declaring that Alli had donated high-end clothes to Starmer’s wife, Victoria.
The money is part of more than £700,000 the media entrepreneur has donated to the party during his life, about £50,000 of which has come this year. He has recently given clothes and spectacles to Starmer, leading some newspapers to call the controversy “passes for glasses”.
The prime minister defended the donations to his wife on Monday, pointing out his team had proactively approached the parliamentary authorities to find out if they needed to declare the donations.
Labour aides say the money has been essential in helping to present the prime minister and his wife as natural occupants of No 10. “If people are going to comment on what Vic wears every time she goes out, it is natural she wants to look the part,” said one.
Others say the controversy is undermining Starmer’s attempts to portray himself as the model of political probity.
Henry Newman, a former Conservative special adviser, said: “Politics relies on donors but transparency is essential to maintaining trust. No one has explained why Lord Alli had a Downing Street pass, and why he was reportedly allowed to organise a party in the garden.”
Alli did not respond to a request for comment.
This is not the first time Alli has found himself embroiled in a cronyism row. Similar accusations were made when Tony Blair appointed him the youngest ever life peer in 1998, at the age of just 33.
By that time, Alli had already had two successful careers. The first was in finance, after he turned a modest job as a researcher on Planned Savings magazine into a lucrative role as a financial consultant earning £1,000 a day.
The second was in media, where Alli made his name as a co-founder of Planet 24, a television production company that created convention-defying hits such as the Big Breakfast and The Word. He later became chair of the fashion website Asos.
Alli’s partner in that business, and in life, was Charlie Parsons. Together the two men were important fixtures in the party-loving media set of the late 1990s, throwing lavish parties and inviting the great and the good to stay in their Kent mansion.
But Alli always had a separate love for politics. Speaking to the Financial Times in 2011, he said his politics were “the politics of sexuality, or equality,” as he recalled his battles with the far left and far right in east London.
Siobhain McDonagh, the Labour MP, describes the moment she thinks Alli decided to become more involved in the Labour party. “Margaret [her late sister] was running the clause IV campaign for Tony Blair from a cupboard on the Walworth Road,” she said, referring to Blair’s attempts to change the Labour party’s constitution. “[Alli] had concerns about some of the people who were getting involved with his local Labour party and had heard she was the person to get things sorted.
“While he waited, one of the three phones on her desk rang and she asked him to answer it and talk to whomever was on the other end. At the end of the phone call, he vowed to get her a PA – and he did.”
Alli’s ongoing business success allowed him to keep funding Labour, but it was not just his money that made politicians seek him out.
“There are people in politics who get things done and there are those who sit around briefing the press,” said one person who has worked with him. “Waheed is the former.”
People involved in the election campaign say Alli not only helped fund it but also took on a managerial role with staff, often helping smooth over the kind of tensions that can blight an intense campaign.
Part of Alli’s appeal to politicians – and part of the reason friends say he feels bruised by the recent stories about his involvement in the party – is that he has never asked for anything in return.
“Waheed is a millionaire and he already has a peerage,” said one cabinet minister. “What more can he possibly want?” Those inside the Labour party insist he has never sought to change party policy. “He is not really a policy person,” said one.
Parsons and Alli have now split, but the pair remain close and Parsons said this was in part because Alli was such a loyal friend and source of advice.
“The secret of his success in television was that he could make A-list presenters and big shot producers feel comfortable around him because he does not want anything from them,” Parsons said. “The same is true of politicians.”
In 2023, Alli gave McDonagh an interest-free loan of £1.2m so she could move house to live with and look after Margaret. “There are many people who are well off but not many who would give you that money in your hour of need,” McDonagh said.
Friends say the publicity-shy Alli has hated the coverage of recent days, but they do not believe it will put an end to his 25-year career as a donor and general fixer for the Labour party.
“He will hate that this profile even exists,” said Parsons. “But it will not stop him donating.”