Tories sling mud at Mr Rules as the Libdems play it cool

YOU couldn’t blame Sir Keir Starmer if he had grumpily voiced the thought over the weekend that he, and his party, really can’t catch a break.

Just as he might have been celebrating – with, perhaps, a beer in hand – Labour’s progress in the local elections in London and Scotland, and the dramatic loss of nearly 500 Tory seats, he now finds himself the subject of unwelcome speculation about his very future.

Police now re-examining whether he broke lockdown rules in Durham? Check. Leaked internal Labour memo unhelpfully fuelling the fire? Check. Lisa Nandy having to defend him on the Sunday shows? Check.

Speaking, first of all, on Sophy Ridge On Sunday, Ms Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary of state, accused the Tories of flinging mud at Sir Keir in an attempt to deflect attention from their own catastrophic record and shortage of ideas.

No rules, she insisted, were broken when Sir Keir had that beer in Durham. Her boss, she added unequivocally, is “Mr Rules. He did not break the rules. He was the Director of Public Prosecutions...”

He had even, she recalled, self-isolated on six different occasions during the pandemic.

But the problem is not going to go away, and there are awkward questions about what Sir Keir should do in the event of the cops levelling a fixed-penalty notice.

Interviewed by Sophie Raworth on the BBC’S Sunday Morning, Sir Ed Davey was asked whether Sir Keir should do the decent thing if he is found to have broken lockdown rules.

“No politician,” he responded, “is above the law.” Whether it was Sir Keir, or Boris Johnson, if any politician received a fixedpenalty notice after a police investigation, “it’s extremely difficult for them to continue”.

Ridge had earlier put the same question to Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab; Mr Raab, perhaps bearing in mind that Johnson and Rishi Sunak are still in office after receiving fixed-penalty notices, said merely that Sir Keir should “fess up” and provide a full account of what went down in Durham. “It’s the rank double standards that drive people crazy,” he added.

Some Labour sources are now fearing that what they describe as the “smears” of Beergate could drag on for weeks.

Mr Raab spoke at length about the Northern Ireland Protocol in the light of the election results there. It was not working, he said, for businesses and communities across the political spectrum, and it needed to be fixed quickly – if necessary, without the EU. The protocol was jeopardising stability in Northern Ireland, he added.

On the subject of the elections, the DPM conceded that it had been a “mixed bag” for the Tories. Ridge pounced immediately. “Mixed bag?” she said sharply. “Are you a bit complacent here?” Nimbly, he countered that Labour under Sir Keir now looks like a metropolitan party which has appeal in London but not in the rest of the country.

And so to the future.

Referencing his own party’s performance, Mr Raab pointed out that how people vote in mid-term local elections is “wholly different” from the way they vote in a general election. And this is the challenge facing the Libdems, who gained nearly 200 seats on Thursday.

Raworth pondered whether the Libdems’ successes were a protest vote, or an indication that the party is finally hacking its way out of the political wilderness as it scents a return to power.

Sir Ed, understandably delighted with the results, told Raworth that he wouldn’t be taking the voters for granted between now and the next general election, but declared enthusiastically that “this is now a trend”, what with the net gains in the local elections last year and this, and two historic parliamentary by-election victories.

He seemed optimistic that his party’s national platforms would chime with the electorate, but Raworth asked the obvious question: would the Libdems clamber into bed with Labour in a coalition?

He said it was a hypothetical question; the election was up to two-and-a-half years away and his focus was on holding “this wretched government” to account.

When Raworth persisted, Sir Ed said last Thursday’s results showed the Libdems making advances in several target seats. If we make these advances at the next election, he added, we can evict Johnson from No 10. “What happens after that can frankly wait ...”

Which is probably all that he could say. For their part, however, Labour and Sir Keir have a tricky hurdle to negotiate first.