Stephen Timms blags ticket for Labour fundraiser from West Ham United

Some people may remember back in July, just after Brown took over in Downing Street, he held his first big event at Wembley which was all about "celebrating 10 years of sport under Labour". Richard Caborn, the sports minister at the time, said to the Times that it would be "one of the biggest ever Labour fundraising events." I bring this up because I've just seen the latest published Register of Members' Interests.

Apparently, Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham, formerly at the Treasury under Brown and now Minister of State for Competitiveness at the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform attended the event. Nothing wrong with that of course, a fairly senior and ministerial Labour figure attending a Labour fundraiser should hardly raise an eyebrow.

Yet apparently, he attended as a guest of West Ham United PLC. So he didn't even pay for his own ticket to a fundraiser for his own party, he got West Ham (or should I say season ticket holders?) to pay for him instead. Bit tight to blag your way into an event that's raising money for your own cause isn't it?