Taylor Swift could be handed the Freedom of the City of London as a thank-you for giving the capital a cash boost with two separate stops on her record-breaking tour.
London has hosted more nights on the pop megastar’s massively successful Eras tour than any other city on the planet – with four in June and a further four this month.
Following her final show at Wembley yesterday, it’s estimated her impact on the economy of the Big Smoke could be worth as much as £300 million.
Now, the Liberal Democrats want to mark their gratitude by granting her one of the city’s most prestigious awards.
The party pointed to Swift’s food bank donations at her stops around the UK as evidence of her generous spirit, while also managing to get in a dig at the previous government.
Sarah Olney, the Lib Dems’ Treasury spokesperson, said the Shake It Off singer’s career has been one of ‘endless philanthropy and using her platform to bring reforms to the music industry’.
She added: ‘But Taylor Swift is now on track to achieve her most impressive feat yet: patching part of the blank space the Conservative government left in the British economy after years of neglect.
‘The Eras Tour has provided hours of joy to the thousands of fans attending the shows, but the real legacy of Taylor Swift’s tour will be the lifeline it provides to our economy, so it is only right that she be recognised with London’s highest honour.’
A well-known anglophile, Swift reportedly lived in north London during her six-year relationship with English actor Joe Alwyn, and she has referenced the city in many of her most popular songs.
They include So Long, London from her latest album The Tortured Poets Department, which she performed live for the first time at Wembley last night.
In a further boost to his party’s Swiftie credentials, Lib Dem MP Tom Gordon snapped himself in attendance at another of her gigs earlier this month.
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Yesterday, he tabled an Early Day Motion in parliament to recognise ‘the economic impact of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour on the UK economy’.
As the motion states, the scale of that impact across her appearances in London, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Cardiff is estimated to be close to £1 billion.
It will appear on the parliamentary website when recess ends on September 2.
To be granted the Freedom, Swift would need to be nominated by two elected Members of the City of London Corporation or two members of a City livery company.
Unusually for a local authority, the Corporation is overwhelmingly made up of politically independent councillors and there are no Liberal Democrats to give the nudge.
But the body’s policy chairman Chris Hayward was open to the possibility, saying: ‘Taylor Swift’s hugely successful Eras Tour concerts at Wembley Stadium in June and August have brought together hundreds of thousands of devoted fans and boosted the capital’s economy.
‘If Taylor Swift were to be nominated to receive the Freedom and was happy to attend the ceremony, we have no doubt that she would have the best day in the City of London, exploring all of the cultural and historical highlights that we have here in the Square Mile.’
Among the recent recipients of the honour are footballer Harry Kane, vaccine scientist Dame Sarah Gilbert, and West End impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh.
Ed Sheeran – who joined Swift on stage last week to duet on End Game and his own hit Thinking Out Loud – was awarded the Freedom in 2022.
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