Home Secretary Yvette Cooper faced claims that she had undervalued her now-infamous tickets to watch Taylor Swift in concert after The Mail on Sunday established that she and her family had enjoyed prime seats in the Royal Box at Wembley Stadium worth up to £1,000.
Ms Cooper – who attended the concert with husband Ed Balls and two of their children after being involved in controversial talks which led to the singer receiving a police escort – told the Parliamentary authorities that each ticket had been worth £194.75.
That placed it under the minimum £300 required for gifts to be declared.
The tickets were provided by Ms Swift’s record label, Universal. Experts estimate that such tickets, which cannot be bought on the open market, have a real value of between £500 and £1,000.
Friends of Ms Cooper said the tickets did not need to be declared because they were a gift to her husband, not her.
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Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and her husband Ed Balls watched Taylor Swift from Wembley’s Royal Box. Ms Cooper is pictured filming the concert on her phone
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The politicians can be seen in the VIP seats, which the Mail on Sunday has established were worth up to £1,000
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The tickets were provided by Ms Swift’s record label, Universal – whose CEO is a friend of Mr Balls
However, Commons rules are ambiguous because they state that gifts to a third party should be declared if the benefit ‘was given because of his or her membership of the House or parliamentary or political activities’.
Senior Tory MP Sir Alec Shelbrooke told the MoS: ‘If it is the case that Ms Cooper’s Taylor Swift ticket was worth £1,000, there is no question that it should have been declared in the MPs’ register of financial interests, regardless of whether she got it from her husband or not.
‘In any case, anyone involved in public affairs would know that the Home Secretary is the wife of Ed Balls. If he was getting coveted free Taylor Swift tickets, it was always very likely that his wife would be one of the beneficiaries.’
Videos seen by the MoS show Ms Cooper and Mr Balls enjoying the concert from the Royal Box, the stadium’s best seats, from where Prince William and Prince George watched the FA Cup Final.
In the footage the pair can be seen dancing, singing and sitting down at various stages throughout the night, watching with two of their children.
A photo shared on X, formerly Twitter, by their son Joel Cooper shows him sticking his tongue out, alongside the caption ‘cos the haters gonna hate’, a reference to a Taylor Swift lyric.
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Senior Tory MP Sir Alec Shelbrooke told the MoS: ‘If it is the case that Ms Cooper’s Taylor Swift ticket was worth £1,000, there is no question that it should have been declared in the MPs’ register’
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A spokesman for Ms Cooper said: ‘We took advice from the parliamentary authorities on whether it should be declared, and followed all the advice we were given’
A spokesman for Ms Cooper said: ‘Yvette attended the concert as a guest of her husband, Ed Balls, who had been given tickets by the CEO of Universal Music, who he has known for many years.
‘We took advice from Universal Music on the value of the tickets and from the parliamentary authorities on whether it should be declared, and followed all the advice we were given.
‘It has been declared in the ministerial register and will be published in the normal way.’
