SHOW US THE PROOF, SIR KEIR

Claims of big curry delivery. 10pm drinks. Yet Starmer still insists ‘Beergate’ was a ‘break’ during work. So now MPs demand...

Keir Starmer was told last night to provide evidence to back up his claims over ‘Beergate’.

the Labour leader says he did not break Covid rules when he was caught on camera swigging beer with colleagues last year.

He insists he was working and he and his team had only stopped for a break and food before resuming their duties at Durham Miners Hall.

But tory MPs said it stretched credulity to suggest sir Keir had carried on working so late when the footage of him drinking beer had been shot at 10.04pm on a Friday night. Labour refused to provide any evidence that he really went back to work, saying only that it had nothing to add on the matter.

in a further twist, a delivery driver for an indian restaurant yesterday claimed that he had dropped off ‘quite a big order’ at the hall of ‘about four bags’ of curry, rice and naan bread.

He also estimated there were ‘probably about 30 or so’ people there.

But after the Mail made further inquiries with the restaurant, he changed his story to say he had no recollection of making the delivery on april 30.

scott Benton, tory MP for Blackpool south, said: ‘Labour must provide proof that Keir returned to work after his beers at 10pm if they expect people to believe this claim. Why would they not provide evidence for this claim if it is true?’

Brendan Clarke-smith, Conservative

MP for Bassetlaw, said: ‘Sir Keir must provide evidence to back up this claim if it is to be believed. Labour already has admitted they lied about Angela Rayner’s presence. Is there anything else they haven’t told us?’

Michael Fabricant, who represents Lichfield for the Conservatives, said: ‘Having first denied that Angela Rayner was present then having to admit that she was, Keir Starmer needs even more to provide some evidence that he did indeed go back to work. It is, after all, pretty unbelievable.’

Sir Keir was yesterday forced to admit Labour had not told the truth over the Durham gathering.

The party had initially claimed that Mrs Rayner, the deputy leader, had not been present, but last week it confirmed she was after being presented with video evidence by the Daily Mail.

Appearing on Sky News yesterday, Sir Keir said: ‘It is a genuine mistake and I take responsibility for it.’

The Tories yesterday stepped up their calls for Durham Constabulary to investigate whether Sir Keir was in breach of Covid regulations.

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’.

Richard Holden, the Tory MP for North West Durham, wrote to the force a week ago asking them to reconsider in light of Scotimplausible.’ land Yard’s decision to fine the Prime Minister over a breach in Downing Street.

Last night he sent a further letter asking officers to look into Sir Keir’s ‘implausible’ account. Mr Holden wrote: ‘Keir Starmer has again repeated his claim that he returned to work after being pictured drinking beer inside after 10pm on the evening in question.

‘As many observers – including residents of County Durham – now know, this seems He added that it ‘simply cannot be the case that Keir Starmer returned to work’, or that the drink was ‘reasonably necessary for work purposes’.

Mr Holden also demanded that police interview two students who filmed the video of the Labour leader swigging beer.

The pair told The Mail on Sunday yesterday that Sir Keir, local Labour MP Mary Foy and a mystery woman, who may have been Mrs Rayner, were gathered in a narrow kitchen next to Mrs Foy’s office.

The witnesses, who are university students, said the trio and other Labour officials, who were standing in a narrow corridor outside, appeared to be socialising.

‘I have never seen a work meeting with people sitting on tables, drinking San Miguel and standing around eating off plates,’ one said. ‘They weren’t having a meeting. There is a clear difference between a meeting and what was happening there, which was entirely social.’

Sir Keir drank his now-infamous beer with Labour comrades when England was only slowly emerging from lockdown and strict laws remained against indoor socialising. He was in the North East to campaign for candidates ahead of a crucial ‘Red Wall’ by-election as well as council and crime tsar polls.

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 just six people.

When the photo emerged in January, Sir Keir said: ‘I was in a constituency office just days before the election. We were very busy, we were working in the office and we stopped for something to eat. And then we carried on working. That is the long and the short of it.

‘No party, no breach of the rules and absolutely no comparison with the Prime Minister. We’d stopped to eat a takeaway whilst we were working in the office and then we carried on. Just to put it in context this was about a few days before the May elections.’

Labour last night declined to provide proof the party leader continued working. A spokesman said: ‘No rules were broken.’

‘It is pretty unbelievable’

A DIcTIoNARY definition of the word dissemble is to hide or conceal facts or information. To deliberately obscure the whole truth.

For a prime example of a habitual dissembler, look no further than sir Keir starmer. on a raft of key questions, the Labour leader and his entourage have either played a dead bat or offered a stream of shifty half-truths.

only when their sins of omission are found out, frequently by this newspaper, does the truth emerge.

sir Keir has been wriggling like a worm on a hook over the beer and Indian takeaway bash he enjoyed in Durham with Labour activists during lockdown.

speaking to LBc radio on January 17, he strongly implied that only six or seven people were present. Yet the restaurant delivery driver told the Daily Mail there might have been as many as 30.

Mysteriously, the driver later had a sudden attack of amnesia. But if Labour have nothing to hide, why won’t they just say how many were there? It’s not a difficult question.

And did sir Keir and his team really carry on working afterwards, as he claims? where’s the proof? A video shows beer was still being drunk at 10.04pm. After a long day, replete with curry and no doubt drowsy after a beer or two, it’s hard to imagine they had much stamina left.

Meanwhile, having first denied that deputy leader Angela Rayner was present at the gathering, he now admits she was.

with his usual bluster he says it was a ‘genuine mistake’. But why did he fail to correct it for months after flatly denying her presence to the Mail in January?

It was only video evidence that shamed him into admitting it at all.

Durham police’s abject failure to reopen investigations into ‘Beergate’ is also scandalous. could the fact that their police and crime commissioner was a Labour councillor have any bearing?

That sir Keir can castigate Boris Johnson for alleged dishonesty over lockdown breaches is nothing less than brassnecked effrontery.

But this is his modus operandi – assume the moral high ground, smear your opponent, then look offended if anyone suggests your own conduct may not be whiter than white.

And if you are put under pressure, change the subject. Having banged on for months about Downing street’s lockdown breaches, all he wants to talk about is the cost of living crisis now that he’s in the similar crosshairs.

sir Keir has a habit of piously saying, ‘I take full responsibility’ – then doesn’t.

It’s fitting that he received a glossy video endorsement yesterday from the archdissembler himself, Tony Blair, 25 years to the day since he took New Labour to power.

Now there’s a man who really knows about being economical with the truth. sir Keir could use him as a model.