Humiliated Starmer’s ‘Beergate’ admission

I take the blame for false Rayner claim, he tells TV interrogator

SIR Keir Starmer was humiliated yesterday as he was forced to admit Labour had made a false claim over Beergate.

The party had claimed his deputy Angela Rayner had not been present at the gathering, which took place when indoor socialising was banned.

But last week it acknowledged she had been there 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.’

Asked if Mrs Rayner had been at the Durham Miners Hall last April, when he was filmed swigging beer, he replied: ‘Yes. We were in the office, we were working, we paused for something to eat, there was no

‘We are a busy office’

party, no rules were broken and that is the long and short of it.’

Referring to the local elections this week, he added: ‘I know what is going on here. We have got an election on Thursday and there are just Tory MPs trying to throw mud around because they have got nothing to say on the central issue of the cost of living.’

He later said Labour did not realise it had made a mistake when it said Mrs Rayner was not at the event on April 30 last year.

Sir Keir said: ‘We were asked twice and I didn’t even realise we had made a mistake until it came out this week. We are a busy office, we made a mistake, it is a genuine mistake and I take responsibility for it.’

It came as one of Sir Keir’s frontbench team dodged questions on whether the Labour leader should resign if he is found to have broken the law.

Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme, Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy replied: ‘Well, he hasn’t broken the law. I don’t know if you’ve looked at the rules as they were at that time. This was well within the rules and that is why there is no police investigation. Why are we even talking about this, this morning?’

Last week Labour admitted Mrs Rayner was also at the event on April 30 last year. It directly contradicted an assurance given to the Daily Mail three months ago that she was ‘not there’. Asked about Mrs Rayner’s presence at the event, Mr Lammy said: ‘I think Keir Starmer has made clear that that was a mistake that came from his office... We apologise for that mistake, she was there.

‘Look, it’s a busy office. There was some discussion at the time a few months ago. We said she wasn’t there, but she was there, but the truth is whether she was there or not is not the point. This was within the rules as they were stated at that time in Durham, that’s the point, and that’s why there’s been no police investigation.

‘I understand why the Conservatives want to throw some attention on this, this week, because they don’t actually want to talk about the cost of living. They don’t actually want to talk about the issues that matter to people on the doorstep across the country but the truth is, there really isn’t anything to see. She was there.’

The admission about Mrs Rayner’s presence came after the Daily Mail confronted Labour officials with proof that she 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 beer.