Durham Police's investigation into the Kier Starmer ‘Beergate’ incident cost taxpayers £101,000 and used nine major crime detectives, it has been revealed.
The force held a two-month probe into whether Labour ’s leader broke lockdown rules after coming under pressure from a Tory MP and newspapers to do so. Grainy footage had emerged last year of Starmer enjoying a beer in a constituency office on 30 April 2021 after a day of campaigning ahead of local elections and the Hartlepool by-election.
The final price tag is much smaller than £460,000 the Metropolitan Police spent investigating lockdown breaches in Downing Street and Whitehall, but unlike the Scotland Yard probe, which dished out 126 fines including one to Boris Johnson, Durham Police did not issue a single fine, saying there was “no case to answer” for the beer and meal Labour’s leader shared with party activists while in the city, according to The Mirror.
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The meeting took place during the third Covid lockdown in April 2021, when indoor meet-ups were banned, but Durham Police concluded that Starmer's case was “reasonably necessary work”.
The Freedom of Information response, first obtained by the NationalWorld website, said the force said a detective superintendent, a detective inspector, a detective sergeant, and six detective constables conducted the investigation alongside two members of police staff. All were from the force’s major crime team and the investigation took a total of 3,200 hours of police time.
Starmer - who had vowed to resign if police found he breached the rules - insisted he had just taken a quick break from work while out on the campaign trail. “I really hated it, if I’m honest.”, he said, after the probe was concluded. “It really meant a lot to me. It was a burden that I was carrying. I’m trying not to show it of course. But it was, you know, it was there every day. And of course, I was massively pleased when the decision came through, completely exonerated me.”
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner was also investigated and also did not receive a fine.
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