No one in Durham has ‘dinner’ at 8.40pm

■ A FRIEND who grew up in the North tells me that ‘dinner’ was always, but always, at 12.30pm, followed by ‘tea’ at 5.30pm.

Keir Starmer’s 8.40pm ‘dinner with Mary Foy’, the local MP for the City of Durham, is pure Islington Labour. No wonder the Red Wall collapsed! ■ I WAS furious with Boris Johnson over those Downing Street parties. It was spectacularly stupid to break your own lockdown rules. But if there were ever any grounds for mitigation, the fact that No.10 staff were on their knees, having worked non-stop around the clock for months should surely count for something.

Sir Keir Starmer, by contrast, did nothing throughout Covid except preach from the sidelines, criticising and sniping.

So what’s his excuse?