POLICE TOLD TO INVESTIGATE LABOUR’S LIES
After Mail exposes cover-up over ‘Beergate’ party...
CABINET ministers last night joined calls for a new probe into the ‘Beergate’ scandal engulfing Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner.
After a string of revelations in the Daily Mail, Tory MP Richard Holden wrote to Durham police yesterday asking them to investigate the Labour leader and his deputy over alleged Covid breaches.
He said ‘incontrovertible’ evidence that Mrs Rayner was at the event showed Labour had ‘lied’ about events a year ago today.
Mr Holden said it was ‘totally implausible’ for the party to claim Sir Keir had returned to work after drinking a beer at 10pm.
‘This was clearly a social event at the end of the working day, in clear breach of the restrictions,’ he insisted. A string of Tory MPs and senior ministers backed his call for a fresh police investigation. Culture Secretary Nadine
Dorries said Labour had told ‘a tissue of lies’ and she did not see how Durham Constabulary could fail to act.
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said he believed officers ‘would have the support of the majority of the public in looking into this further’.
Questions were raised yesterday over the role of Durham’s police and crime commissioner, Joy Allen, after a picture emerged of her and Sir Keir campaigning together for her election. However, last night she issued a statement saying she had no involvement in the force’s decision not to fine him.
Sir Keir attempted to defend himself by saying it ‘makes absolutely no difference’ whether Mrs Rayner was present at the event. His party has been forced to admit it had not told the truth over the gathering at which he was filmed enjoying a beer with officials at a time when indoor socialising was banned.
In a sensational U-turn, officials acknowledged Mrs Rayner was also at the event on April 30 last year.
This directly contradicted an assurance given to the Mail three months ago that she was ‘not there’.
The admission came only after this newspaper confronted Labour officials with video evidence that Mrs Rayner had joined Sir Keir at an online rally for activists filmed in the Durham offices of Labour MP Mary Foy where the party leader was later seen drinking.
During a visit to Edinburgh yesterday, Sir Keir said: ‘Whether Angela Rayner was there or not makes absolutely no difference – there was no breach of the rules, the matter has already been looked into.’
Earlier this month, Boris Johnson received a fine from the Metropolitan Police Service for attending an event in No 10 on his birthday in 2020.
But Durham Constabulary has so far refused to properly investigate claims Sir Keir broke Covid rules.
In February the force decided not to launch a formal probe after reviewing a video of the event and deciding it did not believe an offence had been ‘established’. Mr Holden, who represents North West Durham, wrote to the force last week asking them to reconsider in light of Scotland Yard’s decision to fine the Prime Minister.
Tom Hunt, Tory MP for Ipswich, said: ‘It is imperative the police treat Starmer exactly the same as they treated the Prime Minister. We’d all like to think rules are equally applied. If that is not perceived to be the case then it will damage the public’s confidence in impartial policing.’
Fellow Tory Scott Benton, who represents Blackpool South, said: ‘It would appear that the Covid rules have been interpreted very differently by the Met in relation to the allegations regarding 10 Downing Street, and Durham police with respect to Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner.
‘Labour’s account of events is unravelling by the second. Durham police have a public duty to conduct a full and proper investigation.
‘Anything less is completely unacceptable.’
Mark Jenkinson, another Conservative MP, said it was ‘disappointing that the police appear to be turning a blind eye to Sir Keir’s beer-swigging during lockdown’. He added: ‘They are duty-bound to look at this again.’
Sir Keir drank his beer with Labour officials when England was only slowly emerging from lockdown and strict laws remained in place against indoor socialising. He was in the North East to campaign for his election candidates.
Under the ‘Step 2’ restrictions in place between April 12 and May 17, the Government insisted: ‘You must not socialise indoors except with your household or support bubble.’ Outdoor groups were limited to six people.
When the photo emerged in January, Sir Keir said: ‘We are in the office, working in the office and we stopped for a takeaway and then we carried on working. And that is the long and the short of it.’
A Labour source said it was ‘an honest mistake’ that the party had denied Mrs Rayner was at the Durham event.