Keir Starmer’s voice coach, Leonie Mellinger, is an unsurprising choice for a Labour leader who’s spent years perfecting the art of sanctimonious lecturing. Mellinger, a committed Boris-basher and anti-Tory activist, has been relentless in her online attacks on any Conservatives, gleefully retweeting headlines like “Boris’s buffoonery and banter no laughing matter at PMQs” and “Desperate Boris Johnson to step up personal attacks on Keir Starmer.” She’s also reposted Starmer’s Guardian piece slamming Boris for supposedly “losing control” of Covid, calling for stricter measures than the ones at the time…
Mellinger—who miraculously managed to visit Starmer on Christmas Eve 2020, despite London being under Tier 4 lockdown and claiming all her work was online —was more than happy to amplify Labour’s partygate outrage. She reposted many Labour party and Starmer tweets calling for Johnson and Sunak to resign. She also reposted Starmer’s nothing to see here Beergate defence that “no rules were broken while I was in Durham.” Meanwhile, eyebrows have been raised over initial reports their “relationship began” in April 2020. Though as Guido revealed last night, Mellinger’s husband Anothy Burton co-founded a death penalty charity with Starmer much earlier than that – way back in 2005. Starmer was also paid £18,000 for legal advice he provided to Burton’s solicitors firm from 2016 to 2019. Was Mellinger more of a Labour fellow traveller than a voice coach?
Secondary care minister Karin Smyth was asked on GB News this morning why Starmer met in person with his actress voice coach while London was subject to Tier 4 restrictions, as part of which those workers whose job was not directly related to in-person delivery of the Covid-19 response were instructed to work from home. Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire were told that Starmer “designated” Leonie Mellinger as a key worker so she could come to Labour HQ on Christmas Eve 2020. That’s not how the rules worked…
Smyth said it’s “more mudslinging by the Tories… Keir was working, working was allowed in Tier Four in London at that time.” Not the relevant question – Ellie Costello pushed on why a voice coach was counted as a key worker:
“So my understanding is working and Keir was working at that time preparing for interviews um and so on uh in and the run up to uh, I believe it’s 2020 wasn’t it, so the run up to those Brexit discussions and leaving and interviews for that and that was a working event at the time when we know that what the Tories were doing partying that’s well documented.”
Barely coherent and a claim it was a “working event.” Again irrelevant…
Smyth refused to repeat Starmer’s pledge from Beergate that he would resign if he was found to have broken rules – she didn’t say he wouldn’t resign either:
“Well I think this is all hypothetical and speculation. It’s the same MP that started that last investigation that is starting this one. We want to get on with changing the country… Keir is focused on the future – getting us treated, getting us through those waiting lists faster – and those are the those are the things that are really occupying us at this time.”
Interesting use of “investigation” there. Starmer furiously denied rules were broken yesterday at his Nato press conference as Guido revealed details of Mellinger’s links to Starmer. Labour’s attempts to stonewall on this have so far not worked…
Starmer’s voice coach Leonie Mellinger posted on 22 May 2020 about how all of her training sessions were conducted online:
“The current situation means that all our interactions are now virtual and online… and that led me to thinking about the shift in skill set needed to deal with the current interactions that we’re having I think there’s a danger that people think because it’s virtual they can sit back and not really think about the impact that they’re making on others.”
She made a lot of her remote work. Mellinger tweeted about working from home barely a week after she was in Labour HQ to personally coach Starmer…
Seven months she said all work was online and as London was in strict Tier 4 restrictions Mellinger would travel in person to Labour HQ on Victoria Street to coach Starmer. It has already been established that Mellinger and Starmer had over-the-phone training prior to this. Why did the actress change her online training method to meet Starmer in person under Tier 4? Downing Street is refusing to comment on whether the PM broke lockdown rules in a break from its previous policy and hacks are told there will be no independent investigation “into whether Starmer was working.” Pressure is mounting on Mr Rules…
After meeting Starmer in person on 24 December 2020 actress Leonie Mellinger tweeted a photo of an empty train – telling her followers that she was “going home.”
It is not known where Mellinger was travelling on that particular journey. In the days before and after the actress posted numerous photographs in Brighton. The train is clearly empty, emphasising the fact that London was locked down at the time.
“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?
Lord Khan in the Telegraph: “I hope, and I say this in a non-pompous way, that the public service I do will bring rewards in this world and the hereafter,” he says. “I’m hoping the work I do is earning me Brownie points.”
