“He is Mr Rules” were the immortal words of a Labour briefing line issued in 2022 when Keir Starmer was last accused of breaking lockdown rules. How hollow those words seem today. During the ‘Beergate’ scandal, Starmer began by completely denying he had done anything wrong. The matter was first raised in detail on this website – and eventually, the BBC, The Times and even The Guardian caught up. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander…
The Durham incident ultimately was investigated by the police. It emerged during this period that Labour had spun a web of (at best) half-truths, inconsistencies and omissions. Starmer made a moral stand: he declared he would resign as Labour leader if he had broken Covid rules. Luckily for him, Durham Police dropped the investigation, letting him off the hook, and never pronounced a verdict on whether his beer and curry was actually a rule breach. There was speculation that Durham Constabulary took a much more liberal approach than the Met to these matters, and that he would have been fined had Beergate taken place in London. Starmer’s meeting with his voice coach took place in the Met’s jurisdiction…
Starmer finds himself in difficulty after The Sunday Times – inadvertently- revealed that he had met his voice coach in person at Labour HQ on Christmas Eve 2020. This was during strict Tier 4 restrictions in London (actual law, not guidance) – a much more strict set of restrictions than those in force during Beergate. Families had just been told they could essentially not see any relatives over Christmas. The atmosphere in Christmas 2020 was pre ‘partygate’ – it was one of the worst periods of restrictions of liberty in the capital. The only feasible defence for Starmer in the regulations is to claim that it was reasonably necessary for his voice coach to be present physically at a work meeting. Absolutely no one will believe that, especially given Mssrs Pogrund and Maguire recount previous sessions being delivered via phone call. The partygate scandal itself broke a year after gatherings had been mentioned as a throwaway lines in an old Times piece – that went on to sink Tory Prime Ministers…
Labour’s line this morning is: “The rules were followed.” Sound familiar?
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”