As Keir Starmer struggles to come up with a credible explanation for having trousered over £100,000 ($128,860) worth of gifts from the unstintingly generous Lord Ali, a similar scandal has recently engulfed Australia’s Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

This is hardly surprising. Both leaders make much of having come from working-class backgrounds – Starmer endlessly refers to his toolmaker father, and Albanese talks about having grown up on a housing commission estate at the drop of a cloth cap. However, both prime ministers, and the parties they lead, long ago ceased to act in the interests of the UK or Australian working classes.

One clear indicator of this is that both Starmer and Albanese enthusiastically and greedily accept the largesse showered upon them by the global elites, whose interests they and their parties so ruthlessly protect.

In fairness to Albanese, it must be stated that the scale of grift that he has engaged in does not even begin to approach that of Starmer.

Nevertheless, Albanese has recently been accused of using his close friendship with now disgraced former CEO of the airline Qantas, Alan Joyce, to receive regular upgrades for him and his family over a period of decades. The sum involved amounts up to some $10,000 – small change compared to Starmer’s bundle of loot.

Albanese also obtained a free Chairman’s Lounge membership for his young son – admittedly small beer compared to the luxury accommodation that Starmer managed to procure for his teenage son to study in.

The Albanese government has made a number of decisions favourable to Qantas –including restricting Qatar Airways’ access to the Australian market – and this has led to the criticism of Albanese’s longstanding association with Joyce.

But Albanese’s troubles do not end there – a few weeks ago, the media revealed that he had recently purchased a $4.5 million cliff-top seaside mansion – hardly a good look when ordinary Australians are struggling to find houses to rent affordably, let alone purchase, and Albanese and his government are facing an election early next year.

The behaviour of Albanese and Starmer stands in strong contrast with that of former Labour leader Gordon Brown when he was UK prime minister. Brown refused to accept any gifts, and paid for all his personal expenses himself while residing in 10 Downing Street.

Brown apparently left office in debt – a........

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