Newcastle North MP Catherine McKinnell accepted £2,000 tickets to Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert

A Newcastle MP accepted tickets worth £2,000 to a Taylor Swift concert at Wembley.

Catherine McKinnell was gifted two hospitality tickets to the Eras Tour’s sell-out first date in London on June 21. The Labour MP for Newcastle North, who is also the schools minister, is the latest politician to face criticism as the Government has become embroiled in a series of rows over gifts and donations.

Newly-elected Hexham MP Joe Morris accepted tickets to a Taylor Swift gig in August, with his and Ms McKinnell’s both donated by the Premier League. Education secretary and Houghton and Sunderland South MP Bridget Phillipson was also given tickets to see the American music icon last month by the Football Association, telling ITV News last weekend that the £522.54 offer had been “a hard one to turn down” and that one of her children was keen to go.

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Ms McKinnell’s office did not respond to requests for a comment from the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Coun Colin Ferguson, leader of Newcastle’s Liberal Democrat opposition, said: “At this point, it would be easier if Labour publishes a list of the MPs who weren’t at Taylor Swift’s Wembley concert. It might be shorter. Everyone accepts that MPs will receive some hospitality and gifts as part of their work. But it is staggering just how widespread this is, and what the gifts are for.

“Labour are asking the public to stomach swingeing cuts and painful decisions, like the axing of the Winter Fuel Allowance for millions of pensioners. Does Catherine think Labour are sending the message that we’re all in this together?”

The only other gift declared by Ms McKinnell on the latest Parliamentary register of interests is a £500 hospitality ticket to Newcastle United’s 4-0 win against Spurs on April 13, donated by the Stephenson-Mohl consultancy group.

Sir Keir Starmer, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have all said they will no longer accept donations for clothes after a row that dominated the headlines at the start of Labour’s party conference in Liverpool.