Lord Waheed Alli is the Labour Party’s biggest donor.
Thanks to successful careers in banking, TV, and fashion, the 59-year-old has given more than £700,000 of his estimated £200m fortune to the party.
But this month, thousands gifted to Sir Keir Starmer and his wife in luxury workwear and glasses landed the prime minister at the centre of a freebies row, in which he was revealed to have received more than any other MP.
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Banking and TV fortunes
Waheed Alli was born near Croydon, south London, in the 1960s to a Trinidadian mother and a Guyanese father.
His mother, who worked as a nurse, was Hindu, but Lord Alli decided to take up his father’s Muslim faith instead.
He left school at 16 with nine O Levels and got a job as a researcher for the specialist financial magazine Planned Savings.
After three years one of the companies he wrote about invited him for an interview. His second job – as an investment banker for Save & Prosper – eventually saw him able to charge £1,000 a day as a City consultant.
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He started making contacts in the Labour Party in the late 1980s – at the same time that his then partner Charlie Parsons convinced him to help launch a new TV production company with singer Sir Bob Geldof.
Lord Alli and Mr Parsons lived together in a mansion in Kent, where they would often throw lavish celebrity parties.
Their company – Planet 24 – produced The Big Breakfast and The Word, and the pair became highly influential members of the 1990s media scene.
Came out in the Lords
In a 2011 interview with the Financial Times, Lord Alli recalls helping Labour fight off its militant wing in London’s East End in the 1980s.
He officially joined the party on the advice of his friend and MP Emily Thornberry, according to reports.
As New Labour emerged, he got involved with Sir Tony Blair’s team and worked to help get him elected in 1997.
Having not been given a government job, Sir Tony offered him a seat in the House of Lords in 1998 – making him the youngest peer in history at 33.
His first big speech was in 1999 – in support of lowering the age of consent for gay men from 18 to 16.
He used it to come out to his fellow peers, telling those Conservatives who opposed him: “I have never been confused about my sexuality. I have been confused about the way I am treated as a result of it. The only confusion lies in the prejudice shown, some of it tonight [i.e. in the House], and much of it enshrined in the law.”
Describing the success of the bill as “electric”, he told the Financial Times that giving the speech itself made him feel “absolutely sick to my stomach”.
In 2000, Lord Alli was appointed to New Labour’s so-called ‘committee for cool’ to help the UK’s ‘Cool Britannia’ image on the global stage.
ASOS chairman, uni chancellor and David Cameron’s colleague
As Lord Alli’s wealth and profile grew – he took on various jobs and business deals.
In 2003 he became chairman of the company Chorion Ltd, which owns the rights to both Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie’s work.
Before David Cameron became prime minister, he worked with him at the PR firm Carlton Communications.
He has also been chairman of online fashion retailer ASOS, chancellor of DeMontfort University in Leicester, and director of the late Paul O’Grady’s production company Olga Television.
His charity work, mainly for youth mobility and gay rights, has seen him become president of the Croydon Youth Development Trust and patron for Skillset, Pride London, and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
He has been described as one of the most influential Asian media figures in the UK and has a portrait in London’s National Portrait Gallery.
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Starmer government freebie row
Lord Alli has donated thousands to various Labour politicians over the years. He gave both Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall £26,500 towards their party leadership bids in 2015 and £10,000 to Owen Smith the following year.
He became Sir Keir Starmer’s chief campaign fundraiser in 2022 but has given him more than £39,000 in gifts since the previous general election in 2019.
Sky News’ Westminster Accounts revealed the peer has donated almost £19,000 in luxury workwear and glasses to the prime minister and his wife so far this year.
He spent a similar sum on accommodation and other “private office costs” for him during the election campaign, accounts show.
According to the register of MPs’ interest, Lord Alli has given £14,000 to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson for “work events”.
He also let deputy leader Angela Rayner stay at his New York home for New Year’s Eve and gave her £2,230 in donations for clothes.
The Labour peer has always said he doesn’t want “anything in return” for his donations.
He said of his fortune to the FT: “I pay myself a salary and I don’t really know where the rest of it is. I live my life on my salary because if I thought about the rest of it I think it would probably drive me mad.”
Sir Keir, Ms Rayner, and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have said they will no longer accept clothing donations. The prime minister has defended his freebies, claiming that once he came to office – all Lord Alli’s donations were properly declared.
