Taylor Swift under XXL police escort during her concerts in London, the controversy becomes political

UNITED KINGDOM – An escort worthy of Elizabeth II. While the controversy over the presence of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at a concert by American star Taylor Swift is just running out of steam on the other side of the Channel, it is now the singer herself who finds herself directly implicated in the United Kingdom.

The British tabloid The Sun revealed this Wednesday, October 9 that Taylor Swift benefited, last August, from an XXL escort during her concerts in London as part of her world tour The Eras Tour. An escort VVIP » (pour « Very Very Important Person “), traditionally reserved for the British royal family and foreign heads of state visiting the country… and at the expense of the taxpayer.

No influence on the London police

In a country where public opinion is very sensitive to the management of public funds, this protective measure raises questions, even if Taylor Swift’s London concerts took place in a particularly sensitive climate, a few days after the cancellation of three concerts in Vienna for major suspicions of a suicide attack.

After the revelations of Suncurator James Cleverly, in his capacity as “shadow minister” of the Interior, demanded accountability from Minister Yvette Cooper in a letter shared on X.

Among his main remarks, he underlines the fact that this exceptional escort from the London police cannot under any circumstances be used “by individuals or as traffic assistants for pop stars”while wondering about the possible intervention of ministers in this decision.

Faced with the controversy, British Culture Minister Lisa Nandy denied outright Sky News the tabloid’s allegations of possible pressure exerted by Yvette Cooper or London Mayor Sadiq Khan on the police. “ Neither the Prime Minister, nor the Home Secretary, nor the Mayor of London have the power to override the police on this issue. »

“It is an operational question which is the responsibility of the police, and not of the government (…). The police made the decision”she insisted.

Taylor Swift’s mother in the equation

“Our decision is based on a thorough assessment of the threat and risk as well as the circumstances of each case “, has since affirmed the London police, who said they « operationally independent.

The Sun assures in any case that the mother and manager of Taylor Swift, worried, would have herself put pressure by threatening to cancel the three Wembley concerts if her daughter did not benefit from a round-trip police convoy between her hotel and the stadium. And this, although the police were initially reluctant to this idea due to the significant cost of the operation for the British taxpayer.

For her part, the Minister of Culture Lisa Nandy ruled out any link between the tickets offered for the Taylor Swift concert – which benefited Prime Minister Keir Starmer – and the security system deployed for the American star’s stopover in London . The tickets offered to the head of government to attend the concert of the author of The Tortured Poets Department have since been reimbursed to quell the first controversy of Keir Starmer’s tenure at 10 Downing Street.

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