Yet more food for thought, Sir Keir
Starmer says that on night of ‘Beergate’ the hotel he was staying in wasn’t serving food. But MoS can reveal that it was... until 9pm
SIR Keir Starmer was last night accused of ‘misleading the public’ as fresh questions were raised over his account of swigging beer with colleagues during lockdown.
The Labour leader has consistently denied breaking Covid rules after he and several party officials were caught on camera chatting over beers on April 30 last year when indoor socialising was banned.
He insists they had been working at Durham Miners Hall but stopped for food before resuming their work.
Interviewed on LBC radio in January, Sir Keir said: ‘No restaurants were open, no pubs were open. The hotel we were staying in had no food, they didn’t run food. So if you didn’t get a takeaway then our team wasn’t eating that evening.’
But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Sir Keir stayed at the Radisson Blu hotel in Durham – and that its restaurant was serving food outside on its terrace until 9pm.
A source at the hotel recalled Sir Keir and a ‘number of aides’ staying there last April and confirmed the exact date after being shown pictures posted by Sir Keir on
Twitter showing him in the city the following day.
‘I can’t tell you how many people were with him, but he had a lot of aides,’ the source said. ‘At the time,
‘Labour must come clean and refer this to police’
we were serving limited food and there was room service. It wasn’t like the first lockdown when the bar and restaurant were closed.’
On April 12 last year – more than a fortnight before Sir Keir’s visit to Durham – the hotel announced on Facebook: ‘The day has finally arrived where we can welcome you to drink and dine with us outside. Serving food including afternoon tea from 12pm to 9pm weekends and 3pm to 9pm through the week.’
On April 30, the day of Sir Keir’s ‘Beergate’ drinks, the hotel posted a bank holiday menu, including a 10oz steak and glass of wine for £25.
A 43-second video of Sir Keir drinking was filmed just after 10pm that night after he had spent the day on the campaign trail. He and his deputy, Angela Rayner, also took part in a video call with party members which is understood to have finished at 9.20pm.
Labour last night declined to say when Sir Keir checked into his hotel or whether there had been a chance for him to eat there before the restaurant closed.
The revelations come after Labour was forced to admit Ms Rayner had been at the Miners Hall gathering, having previously categorically insisted in response to Daily Mail questions: ‘Angela wasn’t there.’
Last night, a Tory source said: ‘When Keir Starmer was first asked about this, he claimed he had to drink alcohol and eat inside with others because his hotel wasn’t serving food. This now appears to be false. The same people who have been caught twice misleading the public about this are asking them to believe Keir Starmer stopped working at 10pm on a Friday to drink beers with activists then returned to work. Nobody does this. Labour should come clean now and refer this matter to the police.’
A Labour spokesman said: ‘Keir Starmer was in the workplace, meeting a local MP in her constituency office and participating in an online Labour Party event.
‘They paused for food as the meeting was during the evening. No rules were broken.’