THE stinking slurry of excuses that has been oozing from Starmer and his surrogates relating to the gifts of designer clothes, expensive specs, entertainment and sports events is beyond ridicule or satire. My latest favourite line was that, as a man of the people, Starmer must be glamorously turned out.

READ MORE: Labour minister admits £14,000 gift for birthday party with journalists and lobbyists

What immediately sprang to mind was the 1996 Madonna version of Evita and her song Rainbow High. For dangerously dizzy heights of self-serving denial and hypocrisy delivered with absolute élan and dogged self-delusion, this cannot be beaten. I recommend everyone listen/watch, but for now here is the first verse of the song where Evita convinces those around her (and herself?) that the lavish expensive freebies she enjoys are absolutely essential, not for her but for THE PEOPLE.

“I came from the people, they need to adore me
So Christian Dior me
From my head to my toes
I need to be dazzling
I have to be rainbow high
They must have excitement
And so must I…”

Having made that comparison it’s worth adding that Evita, a street hustler, was just 26 when she achieved fame and power. Keir Starmer is a 62-year-old, well-educated, experienced politician and ex-prosecutor. What is his excuse for this ugly, damaging crassness?

Amanda Baker
Edinburgh

THE nodding donkeys have been busy – everything is transparent. Politicians get donations/gifts all the time – the mantra by top Labour politicians Angela Rayner and Ian Murray has been well rehearsed. But it does not wash, or pass the smell test.

Labour were elected on 34% of the vote, not because the electorate wanted them but because they wanted rid of the Tories. They came to power claiming an end to sleaze and what have we got? More of the same. Just because something has gone on before and it is within the rules does not make it right, ethically or morally. And for a Labour government to think it is OK tells me they are no better than the Tories, in fact considerably worse since they spent so long complaining about Tory donors/gifts etc.

READ MORE: Ian Murray fumes in BBC interview over 'made up' poverty fund claim

They simply don’t get it. Just because something is declared and legal does not make it right in any way, shape or form – even small gifts can change the way we think about the giver and influence us in way we do not realise. “Transparency” cannot be allowed to justify gifts and donations and the influence/bias they could have.

Best quote of the week: “Starmer – just Boris Johnson with a comb!”

Winifred McCartney
Paisley

JUST because he doesn’t carry on as ham-fistedly as Boris Johnson doesn’t mean that Starmer is any less corrupt. Apparently he and a couple of his stooges are no longer accepting donations of clothes, specs and holidays as it makes it look as if they don’t understand the problems facing ordinary families.

That would be the same politicians who only a few weeks ago decided that the gap in public finances that everyone apart from Starmer and Reeves knew about would be resolved by drastically reducing the number of pensioners who could access the Winter Fuel Payment.

READ MORE: Stephen Flynn: Keir Starmer failing to deliver change to Scotland

This particularly heartless move was completed just as Labour did allow the ineffective Ofgem to increase energy prices this winter – putting further pressure on pensioners. It’s not even as if Labour didn’t understand that this would cause suffering – in opposition they claimed 4000 excess deaths could come about from restricting the Winter Fuel Payment.

Starmer and his right-wing stooges have more in common with the crooked Tories they have replaced. Getting gifts of clothes etc for a free all-access pass to No 10 is extremely dodgy – what does this Labour donor expect to do with this access? Labour had plenty of options to tackle the UK’s economic problems but chose to attack the most vulnerable. Hopefully now more people will realise that Labour are no different from the Tories, and will stop believing that they could ever provide the change that’s needed. That change can only come from Scottish independence.

Cllr Kenny MacLaren
Paisley

WATCHING Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner squirm on Sunday morning trying to defend donations to Labour was quite amusing. She seems to think that these donations are necessary for poor working-class women like her, but then she only got £20,000 plus some clothes plus a free holiday in New York compared to the more than £100,000 donations to her leader – and he, with an estimated worth of £7 million, is certainly not poor!

READ MORE: Angela Rayner rejects claim she broke rules over declaring gift

However, if that was bad then her policy on housing was even worse. She refused to commit to any figure for new social housing and refused to end the selling-off of council houses.

Now what does this mean for Scotland? Well of course the cuts to the Scottish budget by Westminster have cut the Scottish housing budget by 20% already. More importantly, if Labour come back to power in Scotland, maybe in coalition with the Liberals or even the Tories, they are likely to restore the selling-off of social housing in Scotland.

When Labour were in power for the first eight years of the Scottish Parliament, thousands of council houses were sold off and their housing minister Wendy Alexander introduced the right to buy for housing association homes. Where I was living in East Lothian more than half the housing association homes were sold off in four years. When Alex Salmond came in this was immediately stopped, and Scotland has a much better record of providing social housing than England, although reduced in recent years by the cuts to our budget from Westminster.

This makes it all the more important that at the next Scottish Parliament elections we return MSPs who are not only committed to protecting and building more social housing but prepared to back independence, and then we can take charge of our own affairs!

Hugh Kerr (former Labour MEP)
Edinburgh