Evasions, half truths and downright lies — how Sir Keir’s story unravelled
PIECE by piece, the true story of Sir Keir Starmer and Beergate is being dragged out into the public gaze. And what a squalid story of obfuscation, evasion and downright untruths is emerging.
Yesterday, in a historic victory for the Daily Mail’s campaign to get to the bottom of the saga, Durham Constabulary finally caved in to pressure and agreed to re-open its investigation into allegations that the Labour leader flouted lockdown laws.
The force had initially concluded that no offence had occurred at the infamous ‘beer and curry’ event at Durham Miners Hall in April last year when stringent rules over social gathering were in place.
And even as the Mail broke daily details which questioned the veracity of accounts given to the police, it remained silent.
Now, in a dramatic intervention that piles the pressure on Sir Keir, the police said that ‘significant new information’ had come to light and that officers were conducting a fresh inquiry into potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations.
In recent days this newspaper has led the way with a string of exclusive stories exposing the hypocrisy of both Sir Keir and the Labour hierarchy for their attacks on Boris Johnson over gatherings at No 10 during lockdown.
The Labour leader was filmed swigging beer from a bottle with officials at a time when indoor socialising was banned, except within a household or support bubble. But he insisted he had not broken the rules, a claim that ever since has looked increasingly flimsy.
The story began on April 30 last year at the end of a week of campaigning which saw Sir Keir give a speech to an online party rally. The event ended around 9.20pm and 40 minutes later he was filmed by a passer-by drinking beer. The video was handed to police but no action was taken.
Our investigation took a dramatic turn almost a year later to the day that Starmer and other party officials had met in the Miners Hall, with a front page revelation on the 29th of last month that Labour had lied about the presence of deputy leader Angela Rayner.
WE first asked the party on January 14 whether Mrs Rayner was at the notorious event. This is what they told us then: ‘Goodness me, with all that’s going on. It’s an old story! Angela wasn’t there. It was Mary Foy’s office.’ (Mrs Foy, the local Labour MP, and other Labour cronies were there.)
Sir Keir himself said: ‘We were working in the office. We stopped for something to eat and then we carried on working. No party, no breach of the rules and absolutely no comparison with the Prime Minister.’
But rumours about Mrs Rayner’s presence at the meeting persisted.
She had been pictured in Durham at an election event with Sir Keir early on the morning following the curry night. And a woman whose head can be seen at the event from behind in the video of Sir Keir and his beer has hair which bears a remarkable resemblance to Mrs Rayner’s striking red locks.
Confronted with our video evidence, the party admitted it had lied to us back in January. ‘Angela was present,’ a spokesman said, but party sources claimed their previous denials had been ‘an honest mistake’.
So far so murky. Labour refused to answer a string of further questions about the event.
But last Saturday, April 30, following our revelation about Mrs Rayner’s presence, pressure started to grow on Durham police for a new investigation.
The Tory MP for North West Durham, Richard Holden, wrote to the force arguing that the ‘incontrovertible’ evidence of Mrs Rayner’s presence showed Labour had ‘lied’ about events on the night in question.
We also disclosed that Sir Keir had campaigned for the election of local crime tsar, Joy Allen, whose force had refused to fine him over Beergate. Asked what role Mrs Allen or her office played in the police decision to take no action against Sir Keir, her spokesman said: ‘None at all. We were just informed. It was an operational matter for the force.’
By last Sunday, Labour’s claims that nothing untoward had happened in Durham were spectacularly unravelling. Sir Keir now told Sky News that the party had made a false claim about Mrs Rayner. ‘It is a genuine mistake and I take responsibility for it,’ he said.
Asked about her presence when he was filmed drinking beer from a bottle, he replied: ‘Yes. We were in the office, we were working, we paused for something to eat, there was no party, no rules were broken and that is the long and short of it.’
But if he hoped his admission would draw a line under the matter he was sadly mistaken.
The 43-second video that showed Sir Keir drinking also showed figures eating what appeared to be naan bread from plates.
And last Monday, after speaking to staff at The Capital Indian Restaurant, not far from the Miners Hall, the Mail revealed that a takeaway had been delivered to the bash Sir Keir had enjoyed with Labour activists. The delivery driver we spoke to said he had dropped off a ‘big’ order of food for up to 30 people for this so-called ‘work’ meeting. He claimed the order had been four bags of curries, rice and naan bread.
Back in January Sir Keir had implied there were only six or seven people present but the driver told us: ‘There were a few people – about 30 or so.’
However, after saying he needed to speak to a manager, the employee’s account later changed. Now apparently suffering from a bout of amnesia he claimed he had been mistaken in his earlier comments and insisted he had never been to the Miners Hall.
By Thursday Sir Keir was getting rattled. He did not challenge our account that up to 30 people had actually been present. Of the takeaway order, he now said: ‘This was brought in and at various points people went into the kitchen, got a plate, had some food to eat and got on with their work.’
At the time, lockdown laws allowed staff to meet indoors if doing so was ‘reasonably necessary for work’. However, official guidance on buffet-style serving was clear. It stated: ‘There should not be any sharing of food and drink by staff who do not share a household. Minimise self-serving options for food and drink.
‘As far as possible, food served and/or displayed should be individually wrapped to minimise contact and avoid spread of infection.’
HAvING claimed his curry – and beer – were consumed during a break from work, Sir Keir struggled to say what duties he carried out after he was filmed holding his bottle at 10.04pm.
The Mail, meanwhile, revealed the contents of Mr Holden’s letter to police. It noted that bystanders were coming forward who had not been interviewed by officers when police initially dismissed the case. He also urged the force to interview Sir Keir’s Scotland Yard bodyguards who were understood to be present at the event.
Yesterday the pressure was growing once again. Sir Keir claimed that the curry was consumed during a break from work, and critics have now demanded that he release the video-clips he says he recorded.
He says these were pieces to camera for social media – but just one Facebook clip appears to have been recorded that day – and it was shot during daylight hours.
‘Shifty Starmer’s account of what happened at his beer and curry night just don’t add up,’ MP Mark Jenkinson said.
It hardly mattered, with the evidence stacking up, even Labour supporters were beginning to question the Keir Starmer narrative.
London mayor Sadiq Khan admitted there was ‘equivalence’ between Sir Keir’s Friday night curry and the ‘birthday party’ at No 10 which saw Boris Johnson fined for breaking lockdown rules.
With the police now properly investigating – thanks to the Daily Mail’s persistence – will this grubby business be finally resolved?