Sadiq Khan declares Taylor Swift tickets late

Sadiq Khan declared free Taylor Swift tickets 10 days late, understated their value and gave wrong information about who they were from, it has been revealed.

London’s mayor originally said he received six tickets worth £194 each totalling £1,164 from the Football Association (FA).

But City Hall on Friday admitted that the tickets were closer to three times that – around £3,000 - and were paid for by a private events company.

The mayor blamed an administrative error. The Conservatives have asked for an explanation and said it looked like he was trying to avoid scrutiny.

Khan attended the star’s concert on 15 August – the first of the second London leg of her Eras tour.

It emerged on Friday that he shared a box with members of his family, a number of City Hall staff, and representatives of an events company who paid for the tickets.

City Hall rules require that he should have declared the gift within 28 days, so by a deadline of 12 September.

But Khan’s team contacted the Greater London Authority’s monitoring officer on 22 September – which was a Sunday.

It was after he had been questioned by journalists during a series of media interviews at the start of Labour’s party conference in Liverpool where he talked about the importance of transparency.

When BBC London asked City Hall about this on Friday, it said that inaccurate information had been entered on the register of gifts and hospitality.

A spokesman for the mayor said: “Any gift accepted by the mayor is declared openly and transparently.

"In this case there has been an administrative error. The updated declaration has been correctly submitted.”

City Hall has not yet explained why the declaration was late.

The mayor defended his receipt of gifts as being part of his role to “bang the drum” for London or “engage with stakeholders”.

On his original entry he said that the tickets from the FA were “a thank you for successful Champions League final delivery” – a reference to the European club football event that was held at Wembley in June.

City Hall claimed that he was offered tickets to watch Taylor Swift by the FA in June but could not attend, and these tickets were erroneously declared for the August concert.

The tickets for the August concert were for a box owned by the FA – paid for by a company called LS Events at an estimated £500 per ticket.

LS Events has previously worked on events with City Hall including the arrangements for the Queen’s funeral and fan zones during sporting events.

Neil Garratt, leader of the Conservatives on the London Assembly, said: “It’s pretty fishy that the mayor can’t get his story straight over who’s paying for his lavish hospitality and what they wanted in return.

“He declared his Taylor Swift tickets late, perhaps hoping to avoid any questions, now as the facts emerge he’s changing his story with each new revelation. What is he hiding?”

In Liverpool at the beginning of the Labour party conference on 22 September, the mayor answered questions from BBC London on the “freebie” controversy engulfing Labour.

“What is really important is that whether it’s the prime minister or other members of the cabinet they declare these gifts, and that there’s full transparency so everybody knows who’s donating what and they know there’s no sense of impropriety," he said.

“It’s always been the case that members of the government and MPs receive donations. What is important is that they are properly declared.”

Shortly afterwards it is thought that one of his officials contacted City Hall to ensure the tickets were entered on the register, but inaccurate information was entered.

Khan later defended the gift of tickets and said he would not be following Sir Keir Starmer's example in paying for the tickets.

“It’s really important for us to understand that one of the roles that I have is to bang the drum for our city,” he said.

The mayor and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper later denied claims that they tried to interfere in operational policing by pressing the Metropolitan police to provide a blue-light escort for Taylor Swift to and from her London concerts.

Over eight years Khan has received tickets to more than a dozen football matches and tickets to Wimbledon tennis finals on four occasions.

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