The Guardian view on Starmer’s pledge: I’m not unethical like Boris Johnson
Sir Keir Starmer has done the right thing and offered to resign if he is fined over breaking lockdown rules. His decision is in stark contrast to Boris Johnson. Whereas Sir Keir is prepared to fall on his sword, Mr Johnson has let others take the blame. Mr Johnson did apologise after being given a penalty notice by the Metropolitan police for Covid breaches. He is the first prime minister to be punished for breaking the law when the ministerial code expects him to follow it. But he refused to resign.
It would be a cruel twist of fate if Sir Keir was the only one of the pair to go. Mr Johnson has not only been fined, he faces being fined for a number of other occasions. More than 50 people have paid penalties over Downing Street parties during lockdown. Mr Johnson is in the grip of a SW1 pincer movement: squeezed on one side by civil servant Sue Gray’s imminent report into Downing Street’s partying culture and on another flank by a House of Commons privileges committee inquiry into whether or not the prime minister lied to MPs. Damning verdicts resulting from either should be enough to finish off Mr Johnson.
The Labour leader believes – reasonably – in his innocence. Durham constabulary had looked at the case and cleared him earlier. But like arsenic in the water supply of the nation’s political culture, accusations about Sir Keir’s election campaign have sloshed around the media. He feared being seen by voters as endorsing the idea that there was one rule for politicians and another for the public. New revelations last weekend renewed pressure on the Labour leader. His defence has not changed: that the curry and beer consumed by him, Angela Rayner and activists in April last year occurred during a work break and not at a social event. Sir Keir says this means the rules were not broken. However, the Labour leader knows that voters are sceptical of such explanations. Instead, they may come to wish a plague on both parties’ houses.
Sir Keir did not want voters to think he was like Mr Johnson, a politician without an ethical compass. This is to his credit. But he is betting more than his own job. His deputy – Ms Rayner – will also have to resign if Durham police issues fines. This places considerable pressure on officers, who have in their hands the careers of the Labour leadership.
The force came under fire for finding that Dominic Cummings’ journey to Barnard Castle during lockdown probably amounted to a “minor” breach of the rules, but stopped short of fining Mr Johnson’s then top adviser. Sir Keir refused to commit to resigning if Durham police chose to admonish rather than fine him. That may be a distinction lost on the public.
The stakes could not be higher. The Labour leader has bet that the police will not fine him and that he can show himself to be a politician who has principles and sticks to them – unlike Mr Johnson. Sir Keir’s political career has been defined by caution. It would be brutal if it was ended by one big gamble.