SIR KEIR STARMER is at the centre of a new freebie scandal even as he prepares to slash welfare benefits for disabled people, it was revealed this week.

The Prime Minister has continued to accept thousands of pounds’ worth of free football tickets despite previous embarrassment over millionaire gifts of clothing, accommodation and hospitality.

The revelations will do nothing to assist his efforts to persuade MPs to back savage welfare cuts in a Commons vote expected next week.

An article for Novara Media by investigative researchers Paul Holden and Jessica Murray also highlights a fresh conflict of interest issue relating to the appointment of crony David Kogan as chairman of the new independent football regulator.

The appointment of Mr Kogan is already mired in controversy because of his donations to the Labour leadership campaigns of both Sir Keir and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, who oversees the new regulator, as well as the party itself.

Sir Keir is alleged to have taken nearly £10,000 worth of free football tickets over the last year, mainly at Arsenal Football Club.

Arsenal executives, with an evident stake in how the regulator does their work, were reportedly pushing for the appointment of Mr Kogan.

Ms Nandy recused herself from any role in the appointment, but Sir Keir did not, continuing to accept tickets while the decision on the regulator was being made.

Sir Keir stopped accepting freebies for a period of two months during the free suits and tickets scandal last summer, before resuming last November, according to the Novara report.

At time he claimed his directors’ box perks were necessitated by security concerns, although neither his predecessor as premier, Rishi Sunak, nor as Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, required such treatment.

One prominent Labour MP told Novara that Sir Keir's behaviour “feeds the narrative of the far right that all politicians have their nose in the trough and they are in it for themselves” and he should pay his own way.

The independent Commissioner on Public Appointments, William Shawcross, is probing Mr Kogan’s appointment. The free tickets, if declared, are not likely to have broken any rules.

Zack Polanski, a Green Party London Assembly Member currently running for the party’s leadership, said Mr Starmer is “either utterly corrupt and destroying any sense of the principles of people in public office or he’s behaving within the rules but totally unaware of how badly the public already mistrust this government.”

Neither Mr Kogan nor Number 10 responded to media inquiries.