Keir Starmer gets free football tickets from firm forced to pay out £10.8m over defective cladding in landmark case after Grenfell Tower fire (… and Labour leader sees his beloved Arsenal throw away a two-goal lead)
- Labour leader received hospitality tickets for Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with West Ham
Sir Keir Starmer got free football tickets from a firm that was ordered to pay out £10.8million over defective cladding in a landmark court ruling after the Grenfell Tower disaster.
The Labour leader has declared a donation of hospitality match tickets, valued at £1,070, from Mulalley & Co Limited for Arsenal’s match with West Ham this weekend.
The Essex-based construction firm was last year told to pay costs and damages to the owner of a set of residential towers following an historic High Court judgement.
Martlet Homes, part of the Hyde Housing Group, had made a claim against Mulalley & Co over the installation of cladding at four towers in Portsmouth.
In July last year, a judge awarded them substantial damages for the remedial work it undertook to address the defects in the cladding system.
Sir Keir Starmer declared a donation of hospitality match tickets, valued at £1,070, from Mulalley & Co Limited for Arsenal’s match with West Ham this weekend
Arsenal players Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard saw their side relinquish a two-goal lead against West Ham in Sunday’s match
Last year’s judgement against Mulalley & Co was hailed as a ‘landmark ruling’ for the housing industry following the Grenfell tragedy in 2017
They were also awarded damages for the costs of running a ‘waking watch service’ – 24-hour monitoring by fire wardens – as a temporary measure while the risky cladding was removed.
The judgement was hailed by Hyde Housing Group as a ‘landmark ruling’ for the housing industry following the Grenfell tragedy in 2017.
Defective cladding was blamed for the devastating fire at the west London tower block that left 72 people dead.
Dame Caroline Dineage, the Tory MP for Gosport, told MailOnline: ‘It is very concerning that Sir Keir is happy to take free tickets for a jolly at the football from a construction company who put dangerous cladding on buildings, potentially putting the lives of so many residents in my constituency at risk.’
In an update to his register of interests as an MP, published today, Sir Keir disclosed that Mulalley & Co had given him ‘two tickets with hospitality for West Ham v Arsenal, value £1,070’.
The match, on Sunday, saw Premier League leaders Arsenal – who the Labour leader supports – relinquish a two goal lead against their London rivals.
The result was a significant blow to Arsenal’s chances of winning the title.
Sir Keir, who often accepts free football tickets, has previously attacked the Government over the cladding scandal in the wake of the Grenfell fire.
He has demanded a ‘national cladding taskforce’ be established to provide immediate up-front funding to remove ‘deadly’ cladding and other urgent fire safety work.
The Labour leader has also called for greater action to pursue those responsible for defective cladding for costs, and on ‘stamping out rogue builders by reforming the sector’.
In their strategic report for the financial year 2021/22, Mulalley & Co addressed the cladding scandal.
They said: ‘During this year we have seen a deliberate attempt by the Government to absolve itself from its demonstrated failings as a regulator of our industry over the past decades.
‘Patently a solution was required to protect innocent leaseholders from any fire risks and the costs of rectifying their homes.
‘But attempts by the Government to ignore its own culpability and lay it solely at the doors of the developer or constructor who were only part of the process is simply a travesty of justice.
‘Fortunately, we have been working with many clients who have sought an amicable resolution of these issues but we have also made suitable financial provisions for any arising liabilities.’
Sir Keir’s spokesman has not yet responded to MailOnline’s request for comment.
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