PM's wife should be treated either like First Lady or like private citizen, minister suggests

A government minister has called for a change in the way spouses of prime ministers are treated in the wake of a donations row linked to Victoria Starmer.

’s Jess Phillips said the current system is a "fudge" and that the husband, wife or partner of the PM should either be a private citizen or have a formal role like the First Lady in the US.

Ms Phillips, a junior Home Office minister, said the spouse does not have an official office or secretarial support, yet is expected to be a "prop" for the Prime Minister and be a campaigner on public issues. It comes after Keir Starmer's wife was embroiled in a row over donations after it emerged she had a clothing rental agreement with a high-end designer.

READ MORE:

Discussing the role of the PM's spouse at an event at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, Ms Phillips said: “She either has no role and she can be a private individual and just be left alone in everything and we should just agree to that, or, like in America, she has a role. Here we have this ridiculous fudge system in the middle, and I think that it should be the former, I imagine it ends up being the latter."

The Labour minister said currently the PM’s wife can be “expected to do all this stuff without any office, any secretariat, any support". She described Mrs Starmer as “an incredibly nice woman”. “The way they keep their children really private gives you an idea of what she is like,” Ms Phillips said. "It just must be horrible, and I don't think that there is anyone who Keir is more protective of than her.”

Science and Secretary Peter Kyle on Sunday said expectations “are so much higher” of the new Labour government because of the Tories constant rule breaking. He told Sky News: "We tried so hard while we had a previous set of leaders in our country, a previous government that was flouting the rules, breaking the rules and lowering standards."

The minister said Labour had been trying so hard to stick to the rules that it had failed to realise the public also has questions about what also “happens within the rules". "This is something that we didn't quite see at the time," Mr Kyle said. "So what we're trying to do is adapt... because expectations of this Labour Government are so much higher than they were of the previous government, for understandable reasons. And we're trying to meet the expectations that the public have."

READ MORE: