RATTLED STARMER SNUBS THE CHANCE TO CLEAR AIR

After leaked memo sinks his story – and Labour insiders say he’ll be axed if fined – Sir Keir pulls out of Press grilling today BEERGATE: DAY 12

Keir Starmer was ‘running scared’ last night as the Beergate scandal plunged his leadership into crisis.

The Labour leader is facing fresh questions including over a bombshell memo that appears to contradict his account of the night he was filmed drinking a lockdown beer with staff.

In a sign of growing panic, his aides cancelled a major speech he was due to give this afternoon at an event where he was also expected to take questions from journalists.

The organisers were not told why he had suddenly pulled out. With police now investigating Sir Keir’s drinks in Durham, he is under intense pressure to say whether he would resign if he was fined for breaking Covid rules – as he has insisted Boris Johnson should.

He refused to comment on the row last night and insiders warned

that the party was in ‘crisis mode’. Labour’s Left was circling yesterday and sources suggested it was ‘almost inevitable’ that Sir Keir would face the axe if he was fined by Durham Constabulary.

‘In the shadow cabinet there are certainly some who think instead of cowering, he should tackle this head on by saying he will resign if he is fined,’ a party source said.

‘He has nothing to lose. He will have to go anyway if he gets a fine, this would put him in a much stronger position if he is cleared.’

Lisa Nandy, the housing spokesman who ran against Sir Keir for the leadership, yesterday refused to say whether she would put her hat in the ring again if he stood down. Even those who had defended Sir Keir admitted they now believed he had questions to answer.

Jolyon Maugham, a barrister who has repeatedly taken the Government to court over Brexit, warned that Beergate was a ‘serious matter’.

‘I do think there are proper questions which arise for Starmer and his team to answer. As I understand matters, I don’t think this can be ignored,’ the former adviser to Ed Miliband said. ‘I really wouldn’t want to be placing a bet that Starmer hasn’t broken the law. This is a serious matter for him and for Labour.’

Owen Jones, a Left-wing activist, said

‘Be careful what you shout for’

that ‘people like me were wrong to dismiss’ the Beergate row ‘out of hand’. He said if Sir Keir was found to have lied his position ‘isn’t tenable regardless of whether restrictions were broken’.

And Diane Abbott, the former shadow home secretary, said: ‘If he actually gets a fixed penalty notice he really has to consider his position. I don’t think he will. But if he were to get a fixed penalty notice he would have to consider his position.’

Mark Jenkinson, Tory MP for Workington, last night accused Sir Keir of ‘running scared’. He said: ‘It’s time he came out and told the truth, apologised and put this whole sorry saga behind him.’

Today the Daily Mail can reveal that Labour MPs made a virtue of an outdoor meal with Sir Keir complying with Covid rules just 24 hours before he was filmed drinking indoors with party delegates.

The newly-uncovered photograph showed him socially distancing from two Labour colleagues after an al fresco dinner.

At the time, restaurants were serving food outside with indoor socialising banned.

However the following day Sir Keir, his deputy Angela Rayner, local MP Mary Foy and a number of other Labour activists ordered a curry to Durham Miners Hall and were filmed chatting in a small kitchen that made social distancing impossible.

Tory MPs accused Sir Keir of ‘acting one way when the camera is on him and another when he thinks it is not’.

The new evidence follows a bruising week in which police announced they would reinvestigate the Beergate event on April 30 last year.

A memo from the event, leaked to the Mail on Sunday, revealed the curry dinner was pre-arranged with no work planned for afterward, contradicting Sir Keir’s claim that it was a spontaneous meal while conducting Labour business.

Today the Mail can reveal that on April 29 last year, while on the campaign trail for the Hartlepool by-election, Sir Keir met with Labour MPs Diana Johnson and Emma Hardy in Hull. In a photograph posted on social media by Mrs Johnson, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, the two MPs and Sir Keir are seen standing outside a restaurant while maintaining social distancing.

In a caption, Mrs Johnson said: ‘Delighted to welcome Labour leader Keir Starmer to Hull this evening with Emma Hardy MP at Humber Street for a tasty dinner, although a bit chilly sitting out!’

But the following evening Sir Keir and party delegates ordered a curry – which could allegedly have fed 30 people – and were filmed chatting indoors. The Labour leader has consistently claimed it was a work event and neither he nor colleagues broke any rules.

Commenting on the new picture, Conservative MP Richard Holden, whose letter to Durham Constabulary’s chief constable sparked a review of the Beergate event, said: ‘Sir Keir Starmer has been caught acting one way when the camera is on him and another when he thinks it’s not.

‘This latest revelation makes clear that Starmer picks and chooses when he thinks he needs to obey the rules and brings up even more questions for his late night drinks and curry party in Durham.’

Paul Howell, Conservative MP for Sedgefield in County Durham, said: ‘Sir Keir and his Labour colleagues have been shouting from the rooftops about other people but then appear to have done the same things themselves. You have to be careful what you shout for.’

Yesterday the Sunday Times quoted a source who said Sir Keir did not return to work after his meal as he has claimed.

Asked about new claims yesterday, a Labour spokesman said: ‘Keir was working, a takeaway was made available in the kitchen and he ate between work demands. No rules were broken.’

Mrs Johnson and Mrs Hardy were contacted for comment.

THERE are, according to the old proverb, none so blind as those who will not see.

And Labour frontbencher Lisa nandy proved that yesterday by being unwilling to accept her boss is in very hot water.

Asked about Sir Keir Starmer’s beer and curry jolly, she declared risibly: ‘he is mr Rules. he does not break them.’

of course, Durham Constabulary – which finally caved into pressure to investigate Beergate – will determine if that’s true.

But little by little, more evidence emerges that Labour’s leader did indeed flout lockdown laws in Durham last year.

A bombshell document revealed the takeaway, eaten indoors, was planned in advance and no campaign work was due to occur afterwards – torpedoing Starmer’s ludicrous excuse that it was justifiable.

And today, a photograph shows that the day before the notorious event he dined al fresco with a Labour MP – proving he knew socialising inside was strictly forbidden.

Yet when asked to explain the late-night drinks do he has repeatedly lied, dissembled and obfuscated. At every turn, his account has held as much water as a sieve.

All the while, he sanctimoniously demanded Boris Johnson resign for so-called ‘parties’ at no10. the hypocrisy is nauseating.

Clearly, the Prime minister didn’t realise being given a birthday cake by an aide would break the law and incur a fine.

And perhaps, despite all clues to the contrary, Starmer also didn’t think his biryani bash was even slightly suspect.

So baffling, convoluted and absurd were the restrictions, it’s amazing anyone understood them – even the lawmakers. the difference is, he hopped on his high horse and preached like he was without sin.

this newspaper does not think that he should resign over his behaviour (although, if he’s found to have broken the law, he must be treated as harshly as those he hubristically castigated).

Instead, he should hold up his hands and say sorry for his grave mistake.