Wearing £2,000 of free glasses while there are people pulling out their own teeth shows the disconnect between the Government and electorate - Sarah Todd

The haul of goodies our nation’s leader racked up over the last parliament are reported to have included £2,000 of free glasses and £16,000 of work clothes and use - during the election - of a £18m luxury penthouse flat from Labour donor Lord Alli. There is another £8,000-plus due to be registered for the free use of a hospitality box at football club Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.

Let’s just rewind. £2,000 on glasses? At a time when there are horror stories about people pulling their own teeth out because they can’t get a dentist and others scouting around for online deals on glasses this really does take the biscuit.

Incidentally, while we mere mortals dine on supermarket own-brand digestives it would now be no surprise to learn that at Number 10 Downing Street the biscuit of choice is from a niche organic range.

To hear of the amounts being blown, willy-nilly, by the so-called party of the working man and woman is just downright disgusting. A £500 hoodie has been talked about. Most people, even if they won the lottery, would surely think there was something rather vulgar about splashing so much money on a jumper.

This column makes no apologies for often mentioning the common sense of the King and his sister The Princess Royal, both of whom are often seen stepping out in old clothes. At church services, the King has recently been seen in a camel overcoat of his late father’s that is coming up 70 years old.

Meanwhile, Princess Anne has been billed the ‘Queen of Green’ for recycling her clothes. How cool, for example, for her to recently be seen sporting a turquoise dress first worn during the 1978 state visit of President Khama of Botswana, in London, when she was 26.

As an aside, ITV Racing correspondent Francesca Cumani is one of the most stylish women on television. She often talks about her charity shop outfits; helping to make horseracing more accessible and chip away at the notion that a day at the races necessitates spending a fortune on designer clothes.

But back to politicians. What a wasted opportunity of this new Government not to have championed a more modest style. How much more seriously we could have taken the Chancellor’s attack on pensioners’ winter fuel payments if she had delivered it wearing a real-life statement piece. What respect Britain’s first female chancellor could have garnered if she had stepped out to make such a tough announcement wearing something second-hand. Yes, a token gesture, but nevertheless it would have felt she was practising the fiscal carefulness that she has been preaching.

Similarly, Angela Rayner’s sneering at the Tories would have had so much more credibility if she hadn’t, according to reports, been taking hand-outs herself.

When she strode into work for her first day as our country’s second in command, she wore the most hideous Kermit-green suit. Fashion commentators disagreed with this observer’s verdict, saying the on-trend trouser suit in a bright colour was spot on for heralding a new era. Good for her; a truly inspirational figure rising from teen mum to one of the most important jobs in the country.

Now it’s been revealed the £550 trouser suit was from a clothing company from whom our Deputy Prime Minister had received £2,230 worth of clothing from. If this statement piece was not bought with her own money, that she has doubtless worked so hard for and deserves, it sticks in the throat. Nobody could have begrudged her treating herself for this historic entrance, but now the fallout from this clothing scandal will further dent people’s respect and trust in politicians.

Taylor Swift concerts and football matches just don’t sit easy; however much business secretary Jonathan Reynolds defends them as “part of the job,” saying politicians are entitled to “a bit of relaxation.”

Oh yes, but they are not celebrities and this - in my mind - is where the lines have been blurred. Absolutely fine for a pop star or model to wear freebies or stay in swanky apartments, but not those who are supposed to represent us. They should be beyond reproach.