Class identity: why fancy freebies are a bigger political problem for this Labour government than its Tory predecessors

By Vladimir Bortun, Lecturer in Politics, University of Oxford

While much of the intense media coverage of the UK government’s freebies scandal might be attributable to overzealous scrutiny by a predominantly right-of-centre printed press, there is at least one important issue at the heart of all this.

It should be acknowledged that the gifts are in line with existing regulations – and also arguably less controversial than some of the donations received by members of former Conservative governments. But this Labour…

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