Lewis Goodall outraged by party he himself attended

Another Labour frontbencher has been engulfed in the ‘freebies’ scandal. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has been forced to admit that Labour mega-donor and peer Waheed Alli donated £14,000 to fund two events on her behalf, one of which was to mark her 40th birthday.

Among the journalists grilling her at the weekend over the birthday bash was LBC’s Lewis Goodall. No doubt trying his level best to appear impartial, Goodall feigned indignation at Lord Alli’s lavish donation, asking if the events were strictly necessary to help get Labour elected.

Yet, as Phillipson pointed out, a number of the attendees at the glitzy gathering were lobby journalists. And as Goodall himself admitted during his radio show, he was one of them. You can understand why he was on the guest list: alongside working for LBC and the News Agents podcast, Goodall was once a Labour Party activist.

There’s more. According to the Sun’s Harry Cole, Goodall even asked if his wife could come to the party, too.

This isn’t the first time since the ‘free-gear Keir’ scandal began that sections of the broadcast media have appeared all but indistinguishable from those they are supposed to be holding to account.

Also over the weekend, Labour baroness Ayesha Hazarika shared a few jokes with Labour frontbencher Lisa Nandy about the freebies scandal on Hazarika’s Times Radio show.

It’s increasingly hard to tell where the Labour Party ends and the media begin.

Fraser Myers is deputy editor at spiked and host of the spiked podcast. Follow him on X: @FraserMyers.