London mayor Sadiq Khan has received more £100,000 worth of gifts and hospitality freebies since taking office – including tickets for Champions League final and Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift gigs.
Mr Khan was also given Hugo Boss suits worth hundreds of pounds plus prized trips to Wimbledon finals, music awards ceremonies and multiple football matches – with his declarations so far adding up to £107,971.15.
The official list of gifts and hospitality for a politician who has been dubbed the ‘Prince of Perks’ shows how he has been lavished with freebies from organisations including the Football Association, Uefa, the British Fashion Council and the BFI.
The revelations come after his Labour colleague, Sir Keir Starmer faced scrutiny over gifts from billionaire party donor Lord Alli – including designer spectacles and clothes for both the Prime Minister and his wife.
Other gifts on Mr Khan’s list include two tickets worth £1,000 to the November 2021 premiere of James Bond movie No Time To Die and another two – these costing £390 – to see the ABBA Voyage show at Stratford, east London, the following May.
London mayor attended Bruce Springsteen’s concert at London’s Hyde Park on July 8 2023 after receiving two tickets worth £239.90
The hospitality to see the US rocker Springsteen (pictured) came courtesy of the Royal Docks
Sadiq Khan also watched his favoured football team Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur in the June 2019 Champions League final in Madrid’s Metropolitano Stadium (pictured)
His predecessor Boris Johnson declared gifts and hospitality worth £221,000 during his time as London mayor between 2008 and 2016.
Mr Khan secured six tickets valued at £194 each – adding up to £1,164 – for Taylor Swift’s sold-out Wembley Stadium gigs this summer, attending on August 15 after they were donated by the FA.
He was also at London’s Hyde Park in July last year to see Bruce Springsteen, receiving two tickets worth £239.90 from the Royal Docks.
Live Nation Entertainment then provided two tickets costing £800 for Madonna’s gig at the O2 Arena in London on October 15 last year.
Mr Khan has also received tickets to attend three Champions League finals, including Real Madrid’s victory over Borussia Dortmund at Wembley Stadium on June 1 this year – with his seat that evening valued at £1,000.
He was also at Madrid’s Metropolitano Stadium exactly five years earlier to see Liverpool, the team he supports, beat Tottenham Hotspur in their Champions League final.
And he watched Liverpool lose to Real Madrid in the May 2022 final in Paris, on that occasion receiving two tickets worth £1,150 and – as on his other Champions League final trips – which were provided by European football’s governing body Uefa.
He has also registered tickets to football matches at Spurs – including their first Premier League match at their new stadium in April 2019 – as well as Liverpool, West Ham United and AFC Wimbledon.
Other perks have included attending cricket matches at the Oval, Anthony Joshua and Amir Khan boxing bouts, the BRIT Awards and musicals including the opening night of Hamilton at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre in December 2017.
Sadiq Khan bought himself a Bruce Springsteen T-shirt before putting it on at the Hyde Park gig he attended in July last year
The London mayor received six tickets from the Football Association to attend one of Taylor Swift’s sell-out Wembley Stadium concerts in August this year
Mr Khan was pictured unveiling ‘Swiftie Steps’ and new murals at Wembley Park in June ahead of Taylor Swift’s first concerts this summer at Wembley Stadium
Mr Khan, 53, was first elected London mayor after beating the Conservatives’ Zac Goldsmith and has since seen off Shaun Bailey in 2021 and Susan Hall this May.
Analysis of his declared gifts and hospitality so far show they add up to £107,971.15, while his team of deputy mayors and commissioners have received £250,000.
Last week Mr Khan was seen arriving in a Range Rover at Anfield for home side Liverpool’s 3-0 victory over Bournemouth in the Premier League.
The mayor has also been to four Wimbledon tennis finals using tickets worth more than £13,000, given by the All England Club – including two valued at £8,500 for the July 2017 men’s singles final between Roger Federer and Marin Čilić.
Boxer Amir Khan provided a £999 ticket for his fight against Kell Brook in Manchester in February 2022, while the FA stumped up £2,000 for him to see Anthony Joshua take on Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium in April 2017.
Gifts he has received also include £1,400-worth of suits from Hugo Boss in September 2017, a £2,000 Swarovski Crystal portrait listed as an ‘unsolicited gift’ and a signed photograph of boxing legend Muhammad Ali valued at £1,500.
Reasons given for what he has received frequently include ‘Official engagement in my capacity as mayor’ and ‘Impolite to decline’.
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London, said: ‘As Mayor, Sadiq works tirelessly to bang the drum for London and act as a champion of the capital’s creative and sporting sectors.
Sadiq Khan, a Liverpool supporter, is seen cheering his side on at Anfield in a match against Southampton in February 2020
Mr Khan received two tickets worth £800 to see Madonna at London’s O2 Arena last October
Sadiq Khan has paid several visits to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium including its opening match in April 2019 – he is seen here with the Premier League club’s chairman Daniel Levy
‘Any gift accepted by the Mayor is declared openly and transparently and is subject to strict rules.’
Last Friday it emerged that Sir Keir PM has accepted £32,000-worth of clothing donations from Labour peer Lord Alli – double the amount he had previously declared.
And on Sunday it was revealed that a second central London property belonging to Lord Alli was made available to the PM and other senior party figures in the run-up to the election.
The Georgian townhouse in Soho was used for strategy meetings, while the PM and his family moved into a nearby £18million townhouse in Covent Garden – also owned by the peer – during the election.
The scandal sparked the resignation of now-independent MP Rosie Duffield on Saturday, who said ‘the sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice’ of Sir Keir’s administration were ‘off the scale’.
The PM has received many more freebies than any other MP since becoming Labour leader, receiving £107,145-worth since 2019, including for dozens of football matches and concerts.
His football tickets included attending Tottenham Hotspur’s home derby against Arsenal last month, alongside Foreign Secretary David Lammy and the PM’s chief of staff Sue Gray.
He has also been gifted the use of a corporate box by his beloved Arsenal football club, worth thousands of pounds per match.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, his chief of staff Sue Gray and Foreign Secretary David Lammy were pictured attending last month’s match between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal
Sir Keir and his wife Lady Victoria Starmer, seen after his Labour Party conference speech on September 2024, have received clothing donations from Labour peer Lord Alli
London mayor Sadiq Khan appeared alongside Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on September 21
This has been provided for Sir Keir, his family and his protection officers. Prices vary for boxes at the Emirates Stadium but they often cost more than £10,000 a game.
The PM last month defended receiving this, saying: ‘I’m a massive Arsenal fan. I can’t go into the stands because of security reasons.
‘Therefore, if I don’t accept a gift of hospitality, I can’t go to a game. But never going to an Arsenal game again because I can’t accept hospitality is pushing it a bit far.’
The latest revelations follow details of gifts to his wife Victoria from Lord Alli.
The Labour donor and former Asos boss has given Sir Keir suits and spectacles worth £18,000 as well as about £5,000 worth of high-end clothes to Lady Starmer.
The Labour peer also handed £14,000 to Bridget Phillipson, now Education Secretary, so she could ‘host a number of events’ – shortly before she staged a 40th birthday party.
And he gave Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner the use of a flat in New York worth £1,250 at New Year.
