Election visit that caused a storm

SIR Keir Starmer drank his now-infamous beer with Labour comrades when England was only slowly emerging from lockdown and strict laws remained in place against indoor socialising.

Labour’s leader was in the North East this time last year to campaign for the party’s candidates ahead of a crucial ‘Red Wall’ by-election as well as council and crime tsar polls.

He visited a gym in Hull on April 30, posing in boxing gloves, then went to the Liberty Steel mill in Hartlepool the next day, both of which were allowed under political campaigning guidance issued by the Government the previous month.

But in between the two campaign visits he was pictured holding a bottle and talking to others inside the City of Durham constituency office of Labour MP Mary Foy.

Under the ‘Step 2’ restrictions in place between April 12 and May 17, the Government insisted: ‘You must not socialise indoors except with your household or support bubble.’ Only groups of six were allowed to meet outdoors and pubs could not serve drinks indoors, by law. The separate campaigning guidance allowed activists to deliver leaflets and knock on doors.

But they were told: ‘You should not meet with other campaigners indoors.’

The document also stated clearly: ‘Meetings to organise and plan campaigns should be held online or over the phone. They should not take place in person.’ The election guidance also said that use of committee rooms on polling day ‘should be functional and not social’.

When the photo emerged in January, Sir Keir said: ‘We are in the office, working in the office and we stopped for a takeaway and then we carried on working. And that is the long and the short of it. There was no breach of the rules. There was no party and there was absolutely no comparison with the Prime Minister.’