Waheed Alli Media chief turned Labour fixer who 'gets things done'

By the time Keir Starmer entered Downing Street, his ally and donor Waheed Alli had become so much part of the Labour operation that no one at the top of the party was surprised to see him floating around the building.

- Kiran Stacey

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." Lord Alli's access to Downing Street has come under scrutiny in recent weeks given that he used it to help organise a reception for fellow donors in the No 10 garden.

Labour says he held the pass to help with "transition work" once the party came into government, though will not say what that work involved.

The controversy has intensified over the last 48 hours after it emerged that Labour might 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 "passes for glasses".