Khan equates Starmer’s ‘beergate’ with Prime Minister’s party

Labour leader receives qualified support from mayor of London over lockdown drinks scandal

‘There were many occasions and a culture versus one occasion having a beer and a curry’

‘I think the police should just look at the new information and reconsider their situation’

SADIQ KHAN has admitted that comparing Sir Keir Starmer’s “beergate” with Boris Johnson’s “partygate” is fair, as Sir Keir faced growing questions from his party over the handling of the scandal.

The London mayor issued a halfhearted defence of Sir Keir over an event where he was photographed drinking a beer at 10pm after a campaign event during lockdown. It has since been revealed that the Labour leader and more than 20 staff enjoyed a £200 curry from a local curry house, after a hard day’s campaigning in Durham in April 2021.

Mr Khan accepted there was an “equivalence” between the event and Boris Johnson’s birthday party, for which the prime minister has been fined by the Metropolitan Police.

Labour has always rejected any comparison between the two events, arguing that Sir Keir did not break any rules because he was taking a break before returning to work.

Asked what the difference is between “beergate” and “partygate” Mr Khan told Talktv: “I think you make a fair point.

“If there was one occasion where an incident happened in Downing Street I think it’s a fair point to say there is equivalence.

“We now know though there were many occasions and a culture versus one occasion having a beer and a curry at the end of a campaigning day.”

Mr Khan’s intervention comes as figures within Sir Keir’s own party question his handling of the story.

Labour MPS point to the fact that a party press officer initially told journalists at the Daily Mail that Angela Rayner, Sir Keir’s deputy, was not at the gathering, before later admitting that she was.

One Labour backbencher told The Daily Telegraph: “I don’t think he did break the rules, but I think it has been handled quite badly.

“If he had come out front and said we were working, we stayed late and we didn’t break the rules, it wouldn’t have been so bad.

“Why not say about Angela being there? Why not be up front? I think it makes it look a lot worse than it is.

“We are just frustrated about how it’s been handled.”

In an interview on Wednesday, Sir Keir was unable to answer a question about whether he had been contacted by Durham Police over the incident, after there were calls for an official probe to be reopened.

Richard Holden, the local Conservative MP, has said that police should reinvestigate Sir Keir in light of recent revelations about how many staff were at the event and that it took place late in the evening.

Speaking on ITV’S Good Morning Britain, Sir Keir said: “‘I had a team with me. We were working in the office. No breach of the rules, no party.

“This relentless focus on mudslinging instead of the issue in hand by the Conservatives means that they’ve got no answer to the real question that so many people want answered, which is: ‘what are you going to do to help me with my bills?’”

Earlier this week Sir Peter Fahy, the former head of Greater Manchester Police, joined calls for the police to reopen their investigation into Sir Keir.

“I think they should probably just look at the new information and reconsider their situation,” he said.

Durham Constabulary said it was “considering” recent “communications” it had received on the incident and would respond publicly “in due course”.