Police must do their duty over Beergate

WITH each passing day, Sir Keir Starmer becomes more and more like the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke. He knows the holes in his leaky Beergate narrative are growing but thinks he may still save himself from going under if he can keep plugging them.

By his constant dissembling, the Labour leader, who loves to castigate Boris Johnson over alleged lockdown breaches, has shown himself to be the worst kind of hypocrite.

He presents himself as some sort of Honest John who can be trusted to run the country. Yet in truth he’s as slippery as a snake-oil salesman. Every incriminating fact about the Durham beer and takeaway party he and his activists enjoyed in defiance of lockdown has had to be dragged out of him.

Even now we have only a fraction of the whole story. How many attended? Was it six or seven as Sir Keir implied in January, or around 30 as the curry delivery driver told the Daily Mail two days ago?

Why did Sir Keir and his team deny that deputy leader Angela Rayner was there until video evidence shamed them into admitting she was? Was it because the gathering might have seemed too much like a party? And, crucially, is it really plausible the bash was merely a ‘pause’ in a busy day, as he claims?

Sir Keir asks us to believe that following an arduous day on the campaign trail, a full meal and boozing until after 10pm, he and his chums went straight back to work? Pull the other one! As Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries put it yesterday: ‘No reasonable person believes Labour’s story. So why do Durham police?’

One may sympathise with Chief Constable Jo Farrell here. Her police and crime commissioner is Labour, as is the constituency MP and just about every other local official with any authority. The line of least resistance for her is to do nothing.

But she is paid to carry out her duties without fear or favour. There is prima facie evidence of lockdown breaches similar to those investigated by the Metropolitan Police in Downing Street.

As long as she fails to investigate, it looks like a clear case of double standards. If Sir Keir has nothing to hide, he should encourage police to step in and clear his name. Or is he afraid the dyke may burst, and the flood waters sweep away his credibility for good?