Man who just can’t answer a straight question
Starmer repeatedly dodges issues in squirming interviews
SIR Keir starmer was left squirming yesterday as he struggled to fend off urgent questions over ‘Beergate’.
During a series of bruising interviews, the Labour Party leader refused three times to say whether police have been in touch with him following fresh revelations in the Daily Mail.
sir Keir also snapped angrily at a journalist who questioned whether he had really gone back to work after his 10pm beer and curry with his deputy Angela rayner and party officials.
Labour’s defence hangs on the unsubstantiated claim that he had carried on with campaigning duties after the latenight meal in Durham.
The party yesterday refused to specify what, if any, work was done.
However, sir Keir said it was ‘absurd’ to suggest that the Friday night drink on April 20, 2021, was the end of his working day.
Last night a picture emerged of what may have been his official car in Durham that evening.
This raises the prospect that his police protection team might be able to provide bombshell testimony, in the same way that officers are being asked for their recollections of ‘Partygate’ events in Downing street.
Labour last night declined to comment on the picture, or on whether police were present at the event in Durham Miners Hall.
A source said the party would never ‘get into security arrangements’.
But Culture secretary Nadine Dorries urged sir Keir to come clean about the event in order to allay further suspicions.
she added: ‘The natural reaction to his refusal to give a straight answer is to suspect that he is hiding something.’
Two students who filmed the
‘The hypocrisy annoyed me’
incident yesterday told the Mail they had been shocked to witness the Labour leader at what appeared to be a rule-breaking social event.
One said: ‘Keir starmer had been so vocal about pushing for more lockdown restrictions, so when i saw him i thought, “What a hypocrite” – the hypocrisy really annoyed me. so i got my phone and started to film them.’
The second student said several more people were at the event than were visible in the video footage, adding: ‘it seemed like what you’d do at the end of a good day’s work when the boss says to get something in as a reward. it was a Friday night.’
Durham Constabulary is under mounting pressure to reopen its investigation into the event at the offices of Durham MP Mary Foy in the run-up to last year’s local elections.
it refused yesterday to make any further comment on the case, including whether it has been in contact with sir Keir’s office.
But senior figures said it was untenable for the force to continue to ignore the allegations of law-breaking by a politician seeking to be prime minister.
Trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan yesterday became the latest Cabinet minister to urge the police to look again at whether sir Keir broke Covid rules.
she said officers should see whether a fine was appropriate – as had been issued to Boris Johnson and others over a Downing street event.
Julia Mulligan, Conservative former police and crime commissioner for North Yorkshire Police, said: ‘There cannot be a double standard in the investigation of Covid restrictions cases across police force areas. it can’t be one rule in London and another rule in Durham.’
North West Durham MP richard Holden, who has been leading calls for a probe, said: ‘This is an issue that Keir starmer has hammered on about for month after month when it involves the PM. i just want to make sure that he is held to the same standard.’ The Mail revealed last week that Labour had lied about Mrs rayner’s presence at the event for three months before being presented with proof she was there. At the weekend a local takeaway driver recalled delivering a large curry order for up to 30 people, before later retracting his story.
sir Keir yesterday angrily denied wrongdoing, saying the accusations were politically motivated.
in a fractious interview with BBC radio 4’s Today programme, he said: ‘We were working, we stopped for food, no party, no rules were broken; i don’t know what i can add to that.’
Asked whether he had returned to work after the beer, he replied: ‘Yes, the idea that nobody works at ten o’clock at night is absurd.’
sir Keir refused three times to say whether police had contacted him after announcing last week they would consider a request to review their decision not to fully investigate. A Labour source said it was ‘self-evident’ the police had not been in touch as they had not reopened the investigation.
‘Should be held to same standard’
IT was hardly the most difficult question to answer. Sir Keir Starmer hadn’t been asked to explain the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics or, dare we say it, even what a woman is – one we know he struggles to answer.
BBC Radio had simply invited him to reveal whether Durham Constabulary had contacted his office over his Beergate bash. Yes or no? Instead of candour, Labour’s leader squirmed like a speared eel.
Ten times he refused to set the record straight over the police. Wounded in tone, he talked over his interviewer. He pretended accusations of lockdown breaches were just Tory mud-throwing. Each time he repeated his stock ‘nothing-to-see-here’ response, he looked guiltier and guiltier.
Dripping with sanctimony, Sir Keir insists that Boris Johnson come clean about No10’s alleged rule-breaking.
But when will he tell the truth about the Durham beer and curry event he enjoyed with Labour campaigners which broke Covid restrictions?
Thanks to this newspaper, the public now knows Sir Keir, from his supposed moral high ground, has been dissembling furiously. His office initially denied that deputy leader Angela Rayner was present at the gathering. That was a lie.
He said he ordered a takeaway because catering wasn’t available at his hotel. That was a lie too. How many people were there? What work did he and his pals do once they’d drained their beer bottles after 10pm? He won’t say.
Pious Sir Keir says there is ‘no comparison’ to Mr Johnson’s fine for receiving a birthday cake between meetings. The evidence suggests otherwise.
So it’s scandalous that Durham police have not reopened their investigation. As things stand, the PM is being held to a far harsher legal standard.
Of course, we understand Sir Keir’s evasion. Being caught red-handed is not a good look for a QC, the Leader of the Opposition or an aspirant prime minister.
But this will not go away. He demanded the strictest possible interpretation of the rules for Mr Johnson. Now the boot is on the other foot, expecting anything other in return would be brass-necked hypocrisy.