Starmer dinner was planned, memo reveals
SIR KEIR STARMER faced fresh “beergate” questions last night after a memo emerged undermining Labour’s claim that his curry dinner with staff was a spur-of-the moment event.
A leaked internal planning document for the Labour leader’s ill-fated visit to Durham appeared to reveal the beer and takeaway at the centre of a new police probe was planned in advance.
The allegations came as Diane Abbott, the former shadow home secretary, became the party’s first MP to go on the record and urge him to quit if he’s fined for breaking lockdown rules. An operational note, obtained by The
also casts doubt on Sir Keir’s defence that the curry was part of a work event because he and staff returned to their tasks after eating.
The document, marked “private and confidential” outlines the plans the Labour leader’s team put in place ahead of his campaign visit to Durham on April 30 last year.
It records his and deputy Angela Rayner’s “dinner in Miners’ Hall”, where the pair filmed video clips and took part in a members’ event, and includes a reminder to “arrange takeaway from Spice Lounge”.
After the reference to the local curry house, the memo simply states “end of visit”, suggesting that was the final working engagement in Sir Keir’s day.
James Cleverly, the Tory MP and foreign office minister, said the allegations showed the Labour leadership had demonstrated “hypocrisy and dishonesty in equal measure”.
He said: “Starmer claimed it was an impromptu curry. Turns out it was preplanned. Starmer claimed nowhere served food. Turns out that loads of places did. Rayner claimed she wasn’t there. Turns out she was.”
Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, suggested Sir Keir should “take his own advice” and resign, having called on Boris Johnson to quit over the partygate scandal.
Richard Holden, the Tory MP for North West Durham, who campaigned for the local force to reopen its investigation into “beergate”, described the leaked memo as “unbelievable”.
He added it provided damning new evidence of Labour’s “relentless and deliberate dissembling…over recent weeks” in its official version of events.
The reference to Ms Rayner’s participation in the trip also calls into question Labour’s claim that its previous denials that she was at the event were an “honest mistake”.
Sir Keir was due to arrive at the Radisson Blu hotel in Durham at 6.31pm
‘I’m just making the common sense point that if he gets a fixed penalty notice he should consider his position’
‘I was working in the office, we stopped for something to eat. There was no party, no breach of rules, I am confident of that’
according to the note, then leave soon after to walk to the Miners’ Hall.
He had an hour-and-20-minute dinner with Mary Foy, the local MP, whose office is on site, while one of his private office staffers was tasked with organising the takeaway.
The order reportedly came to £200, including four bags of curries, rice and naan bread, and was enough to feed at least 15 people.
It has also emerged the hotel where Sir Keir’s team were staying was serving food until 9pm, raising questions about his defence that all the restaurants were closed. Defending the event last week, the Labour leader told ITV: “At some point, this was in the evening, everybody’s hungry and then that takeaway was ordered. It was then delivered into the kitchen.
“Restaurants and pubs were closed, so takeaways were really the only way you could eat.
“So this was brought in and at various points people went through the kitchen, got a plate, had some food to eat and got on with their work.”
At the time England was still under lockdown laws that banned social gatherings indoors, although staff could meet if doing so was “reasonably necessary for work”.
The rules stated “there should not be any sharing of food and drink by staff who do not share a household” and workplaces should “minimise self-serving options for food and drink”.
Separate government guidance on campaigning, which was not legally binding, said mixing should be kept “to a minimum” with planning meetings “held online or over the phone”.
The Labour memo even included a reminder about the Covid alert level and stated: “Important note: please maintain social distancing of 2m and wear face coverings whilst indoors at all time.”
Yet the office kitchen where Sir Keir was photographed drinking beer while aides stood around with plates of food is said to have been too small for social distancing to have taken place. In an interview with LBC yesterday, Ms Abbott became the first Labour MP to suggest the party’s leader should resign if he’s fined for breaching the rules.
She said: “I’m a loyal supporter of Keir Starmer.
“I’m just making the common sense point that if he gets a fixed penalty notice he should consider his position.”
Speaking during a visit to Scotland yesterday, Sir Keir repeated his insistence he’s “confident” he will be cleared by the Durham Police investigation.
“As I have explained a number of times, I was working in the office, we stopped for something to eat”, he said.
“There was no party, no breach of rules, I am confident of that. The police have obviously got to do their job.”
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said he would not “entertain” the idea of Sir Keir having to resign over the furore.
He told the BBC: “I have absolute faith and confidence that Keir Starmer did the right thing all the way along”.
Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor, tried to distance the “beergate” scandal from partygate, claiming it was “a million miles away from what Boris Johnson was found to have done”.
A Labour spokesman said: “Keir was working, a takeaway was made available in the kitchen, and he ate between work demands. No rules were broken.”