Priti Patel right to declare ticket to Bond premiere as home secretary because film is about 'executive function', minister claims

• Priti Patel declared two free tickets to the premiere of "No Time To Die" in her role as home secretary.
• By declaring the tickets as a minister, the freebies took longer to come out, and no value was given for them.

Priti Patel was right to declare freebie tickets to the premiere of "No Time To Die" in her role as home secretary because the film concerns "executive function", a minister has told MPs.

Patel attended the premiere, held on September 28 2021, with her husband, according to data released by the Home Office in February 2022.

The tickets were paid for by the Jamaica Tourist Board. Because it was declared through the government, no cost was published for the value of the gift.

Commons Leader Mark Spencer told MPs it was down to ministers to decide where to register freebies: either through the government which is supposed to publish the information on a quarterly basis, or through the House of Commons within 28 days.

But Chris Bryant, chair of the Standards Committee, questioned why she had declared the gift as home secretary instead of as an MP.

"What's a Bond premiere got to do with her role as home secretary?" Bryant asked Michael Ellis, a Cabinet Office minister.

"The nature of the film is, one could argue, connected to executive function," Ellis replied, to laughter in the room. "It's a matter for her, though, individual cases notwithstanding."

Spencer said the very fact the committee was discussing the freebie demonstrated the system worked.

Free tickets to the premiere were not just for Patel's eyes only.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss also received free tickets to the premiere from the film's producers, Eon, according to data from the Foreign Office. Culture ministers Nadine Dorries and Julia Lopez received tickets from Pinewood Studios and NBC Universal respectively.

Spencer's admission that it was down to ministers to decide where to declare gifts and hospitality contrasts with claims made by a spokesperson for former health secretary Matt Hancock.

Responding to a story in the Guardian about an undeclared overnight stay by Hancock at a country estate owned by a healthcare firm, the spokesperson said if departmental officials "judge an event political" then the aspects of the ministerial code on declaring gifts "doesn't apply".

A spokesperson for Patel was contacted for comment.