Ministers must ask why they get freebies - and who misses out?

Ministers from Keir Starmer downwards have sometimes seemed perplexed about what they see as the fuss made over their acceptance of hospitality in the last nine months.

- Rowena Mason

From their point of view, free tickets to concerts and sporting events are a paltry form of compensation for the disruption to their private lives that comes from being a frontline politician.

One cabinet minister in the eye of the storm has been heard to complain privately that hospitality was par for the course in the private sector and that nobody could expect MPs to know who was paying for every free pint of beer placed in front of them.

But critics say this justification fails to examine the motivations of the firms offering them freebies - companies rarely act out of the goodness of their hearts and so the question that should be asked is not who is paying for this, but what do they want?

There is a commercial reason for firms offering to take out ministers, special advisers and senior officials for dinners and lunches, inviting them to take part in events or attend entertainment.