The Mail on Sunday

IS RAYNER BEING THROWN TO THE WOLVES?

- By Brendan Carlin

LABOUR’S Beergate row deepened last night amid claims that Angela Rayner was facing a bid to ‘throw her to the wolves’ over the lockdown drink and curry in Durham.

A party insider told The Mail on Sunday that an audit of emails, WhatsApp chats and video edits had so far provided no evidence that the party’s deputy leader had returned to work after the event.

But earlier this week, Labour sources briefed that the same audit – to be provided to Durham police – would show that Sir Keir’s team had gone back to work after the curry.

It comes just days after both politician­s promised to resign if police fined them over the controvers­ial gathering on April 30 last year when indoor socialisin­g was illegal.

And party insiders said it would be ironic if Ms Rayner was the one to lose her job over Beergate as until a few weeks ago, Labour had denied she had even been present at the event which took place in the run-up to the Hartlepool by-election.

But last night, one senior Labour MP raised suspicions that someone was ‘trying to dump’ on Ms Rayner.

He said: ‘This feels very much like someone is preparing to throw the deputy leader to the wolves over this. If there’s a problem with this event in Durham, it can’t be right to focus the blame on Angela Rayner – Sir Keir was there too.’

Starmer loyalists stressed that despite the ‘fraught’ relationsh­ip between the party and his deputy, Sir Keir’s office was not trying to shift any blame on to Ms Rayner.

The defence that Sir Keir and the Labour team carried on working after the curry at Durham Miners Hall has become key to Labour’s claim that no rules were broken .

Last night, a Labour spokespers­on said: ‘Angela has made no secret of the fact that she was there with Keir for campaign events, and no rules were broken.’

 ?? ?? INVESTIGAT­ED: Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner
INVESTIGAT­ED: Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom