To revive Labour, Starmer should go to conference with this pledge: we will clean politics of sleaze | Polly Toynbee

Another donations controversy, and another chance for the PM to draw the line – and stem the flow of dubious money into Westminster

Money, money, money brings politicians down time and again. People expect corrupting cash from the Tories, with their last cabinet of zillionaires umbilically linked to finance of every kind, but voters expect better from Labour. The first painful dent in the moral armour of Keir Starmer’s cabinet was the revelation of freebies he and others accepted in clothes, glasses and tickets. There was a chance then to get on the front foot, using that minor but shabby embarrassment to declare a great clean-up of the sewage inflow of influence on politics from mega donations. But No 10 missed it.

The dispute over Labour’s alleged failure to declare sizeable support from the campaign group Labour Together offers another opportunity for Starmer to call time on big money in politics. The Tories have called for the electoral commission to conduct a new investigation into this week’s allegations – including that Labour failed to declare staffing costs it received from Labour Together that covered McSweeney’s salary. In 2021, the watchdog fined Labour Together £14,250 for failing to properly declare sizeable donations, which the campaign group blamed on an “administrative error”. Labour has clarified this week that McSweeney’s salary was paid by Starmer’s leadership campaign in 2020, not Labour Together.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist