At least ONE of Keir’s colleagues has enough bottle to tell the truth!
As Sadiq Khan admits there’s ‘equivalence’ between Starmer’s lager and No 10 fines...
The Labour mayor of London has admitted there is ‘equivalence’ between Keir Starmer’s Friday night curry and the so-called ‘birthday party’ at No10 which saw Boris Johnson fined for breaking lockdown rules.
Sir Keir’s Beergate hangover worsened yesterday following the comments by Sadiq Khan, which dramatically undermined his own party’s efforts to brush off the scandal.
Mr Khan described the now infamous events at Durham Miners hall last year as ‘a beer and a curry at the end of a campaigning day’. This appeared to contradict Sir Keir’s oftrepeated claim that his team carried on working after the 10pm takeaway.
With Durham police expected to issue an update on the incident following yesterday’s local elections, Mr Khan’s comments raised yet more questions about the event on April 30, 2021, which saw Sir Keir filmed swigging from a bottle of San Miguel.
The meal for up to 30 activists – at a time when almost all indoor socialising was banned – has drawn comparisons with the brief gathering in Downing Street which saw Mr Johnson and the Chancellor fined £50. Sir Keir called for both men to resign over the matter.
Pressed on Beergate’s similarities with the ‘birthday party’ in June 2020, Mr Khan told TalkTV: ‘I think you make a fair point. If
‘Having a beer at the end of the day’
there was one occasion where an incident happened in Downing Street, I think it’s a fair point to say there’s equivalence.’
however, Mr Khan, who backed Sir Keir as Jeremy Corbyn’s successor, added: ‘There were many occasions and a culture [at Downing Street]... versus one occasion [of] having a beer and a curry at the end of a campaigning day.’
Stressing that rules last April provided exemptions for political campaigning, he insisted that ‘what Keir Starmer was doing is not unreasonable... having supper is very different from a culture in Downing Street of “bring your own bottle”, having a karaoke machine’.
Lockdown laws last April allowed staff to meet indoors if doing so was ‘reasonably necessary for work’ – but official guidance stated: ‘There should not be any sharing of food and drink by staff who do not share a household.’ Of his own eating habits, Mr Khan said meals during last year’s election campaigns typically involved ‘a kebab roll’ while walking to the next doors he was knocking on.
Durham Constabulary confirmed this week that it was ‘considering’ a number of ‘recent communications’ on Beergate and would ‘respond in due course’. The force could not make its decision public before polls closed last night as police must avoid announcements that could affect an election result.
Last night a Labour spokesman said the party ‘has been clear that no rules were broken in Durham, and Keir has no case to answer’.