Secret note shatters Starmer’s ‘beergate’ story

BRITAIN’S Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has been plunged into a full-scale leadership crisis after the Mail on Sunday obtained a secret document that appears to shatter his version of events over the ‘Beergate’ saga.

A Labour party operational note drawn up ahead of Mr Starmer’s visit to Durham, where he was filmed enjoying a late-night beer with activists, reveals the gathering was planned in advance.

The document, marked ‘private and confidential’, also calls into doubt Mr Starmer’s claim that he returned to work after the beers and takeaway curries.

After the entry recording the ‘dinner in Miners Hall’ – which includes a note to ‘arrange takeaway from Spice Lounge’, a local curry house – the document simply says: ‘End of visit’.

The revelation follows the announcement by Durham Constabulary on Friday of a fresh investigation into the event on April 30 last year, when indoor socialising was illegal.

The memo also undermines Labour’s claims that it made ‘an honest mistake’ when it denied that deputy leader Angela Rayner was at the event: it lists ‘AR’ alongside ‘KS’ as the two senior politicians anchoring the day’s proceedings.

The Labour leader is facing accusations of hypocrisy, having called for prime minister Boris Johnson’s resignation in January when Scotland Yard launched its inquiry into claims of No.10 Downing Street lockdownbreaking.

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries said last night: ‘Being investigated or receiving a fixedpenalty notice is not a resigning matter for anyone at all – unless of course you’ve daily argued the case that it is just that and repeatedly called for the resignation of others. He has no choice but to resign thanks to his own sanctimonious hypocrisy.’

Labour has tried to draw a distinction between ‘Beergate’ and ‘Partygate’ on the grounds that Mr Starmer’s event was not planned. But the note shows that it was.