Starmer dismisses Covid rule flout claim

KEIR Starmer has denied breaking lockdown rules while having a beer after work.

The Labour leader has faced questions about a photograph which depicts him drinking a beer with colleagues last April while working on a campaign for a by-election.

Having previously told journalists Angela Rayner, his deputy, was not at the event, it has now emerged she did attend, but Sir

Keir has described it as a “mistake made in good faith”.

He added that it had no bearing on the matter, as regardless, no rules had been broken.

Despite the lockdown rules at the time banning gatherings indoors for those not within your household or support bubble, there was an exception for work events in relation to election campaigns.

Sir Keir insists he did not break the rules by having a beer with a takeaway in between working, and described Downing Street as the “most fined workplace” in the country.

Speaking on the campaign trail, he said: “There was no party. There was no breach of the rules. There was nothing really to add to that.

“Contrast that to Downing Street, where we know that there have been 50 fines issued already in Downing Street in relation to goings on.

“That makes Downing Street the most fined workplace in the whole of the UK.”

He also said that the rising cost of living was keeping people up at night, adding: “Everybody is talking about the costof-living crisis.

“The thing that has been keeping people up at night is worrying about paying their bills and being whacked with tax by the Government.

“From the Labour

Party point of view, we think that there should be a windfall tax on oil and gas companies in the North Sea, they have made more profit than they are expecting.”