He added: “Somebody then offered me accommodation where we could do that, and I took it up. And it was the right thing to do. It didn’t cost the taxpayer a penny.”
He said he felt passionately about the issue, admitting that for his daughter, who is 13, and his son, the situation was difficult.
The prime minister has faced criticism after it emerged he had received more than £16,000 for work clothing and spectacles for him, and further donations for his wife, from Lord Alli.
He has since declared he would no longer accept donations for clothing, alongside Deputy PM Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
He told Today’s Nick Robinson that he’d accepted the donation for clothing in opposition, during a “busy election campaign”.
“I won’t be making declarations in relation to clothing again, understood,” he said.
The prime minister has also faced down criticism after he decided to accept hospitality from Arsenal football club, arguing he can no longer use his normal seats as prime minister, because of the security he needs.
“As a result of security I can’t go in the stand any more,” he said.
Rows over donations and freebies overshadowed the start of Labour conference – Sir Keir is far from the only MP to have received freebies over the past year.
Many current MPs from across the House of Commons listing free tickets to sporting and cultural events in their registers of interests.
Asked about whether politicians should pay their own way, Sir Keir said it was a question of exercising judgement.
“A culture secretary, for example, will be invited to events quite often, the support of a politician being somewhere is important for a particular event or sport, but it’s a question of judgment, and it’s got to be clear, it’s got to be declared.”
