Keir Starmer's just made a mistake so basic if he was a Tory he'd be absolutely hammered

As an elected official - or as someone holding public office - there’s a very simple day one lesson.

Accept no gifts for yourself or for your family - and if you really think it’s OK to do so, make absolutely bloody well certain you’ve dotted every i, crossed every t and run it by the legal team for good measure.

There is, of course, a very obvious reason for following this golden rule, as not doing so leaves you wide open to accusations of abusing your position - that’s funded by the public.

And yet, somehow, Sir Keir Starmer has managed to score a huge own goal by reportedly not declaring that, in addition to himself getting style advice and gifts from the former chairman of ASOS, his wife has also been busy accepting goodies too.

In allowing multi-millionaire businessman and Labour donor Lord Alli to fund high-end clothes, a personal shopper and alterations for his wife, the PM has possibly breached parliamentary rules by not declaring it in the correct timeframe.

Lord Alli - whose wealth is estimated to be £200m - is Starmer’s biggest personal donor and has this year given the Labour leader £18,685 worth of work clothes and several pairs of glasses.

The whole sorry affair has descended the party into accusations of sleaze at a breakneck pace, with Lord Alli being given a pass to Downing Street for as yet dubious reasons, as he had no formal Government role.

It’s the kind of thing that any Tory leader would - rightly - be absolutely hammered for and I’m certain even the most ardent Labour activist will now be mentally falling to their knees and screaming “why!!!!” to the skies.

Truth be told, I’m not a Keir hater. He seems like a nice, clearly very intelligent guy who, as I think everyone who doesn’t live under a rock is now aware, was once the director of public prosecutions.

But this - and the fact that he’s been an MP since 2015 - clearly qualifies him to know that even if you’re offered so much as a free pint, the golden rule is that you must in all circumstances mentally run through your mind a number of questions including who is offering it, why they are offering it and what action you would need to take in order to accept it with clear conscience.

So the fact that Sir Keir - who is estimated to be worth about £3millon - and his wife are accepting such gifts strikes me as totally absurd.

There are other problematic elements to this quickly unfolding scandal - and that’s his trusty top team making matters oh so much worse.

First up? David Lammy. I mean, crikey. He took to the telly yesterday to justify this terrible oversight by his boss saying that he can totally understand why the gifts were accepted because THE. GOVERNMENT. DOESN’T. HAVE. A. WARDROBE. BUDGET.

And this was a shame because Keir and his wife needed to look nice to represent all us peasants who shop at Primark and can’t afford to wear £400 hoodies.

And it didn’t take long before the deep dive into historical tweets began - and lo and behold deputy PM Angela Rayner has come up trumps with her offerings calling for Tory scalps when they have displayed similar behaviours, including Boris’ wallpaper gate.

As Keir’s party absolutely plummets in the polls after their cruel decision to snatch away the winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners, this latest debacle is really not what his party needed.

It struck me as particularly damning to see a number of known Labour supporters on social media, knowing they had nowhere else to go other than to join the growing condemnations.

After just a couple of months at the helm it does make you wonder how quickly high spirits must have ebbed away - and what dramas are lurking around the corner for Keir and pals next.