It took Keir Starmer three days to promise to resign if he was fined for breaking lockdown rules, after Durham police announced its investigation – but those who know him say it was never in doubt that he would do so.
Some may regard him as a little dull, but Starmer is a stickler for the rules. His pledge to resign was a political gamble but it also laid down a genuine dividing line between the former director of public prosecutions and the chaotic, devil-may-care Boris Johnson.
How ironic then, that the Labour leader’s exoneration came just as Johnson prepares to depart the political stage, leaving behind him a legacy of sleaze and impropriety.
The “beergate” claims were pushed hard by Durham MP Richard Holden and taken up enthusiastically – and relentlessly – by the Daily Mail. The pro-Johnson paper ran a string of increasingly fervent front page stories highlighting discrepancies in Labour’s story – not least the fact that the party initially said Angela Rayner was not at the Durham campaign event.
Johnson gladly seized on the investigation to muddy the waters over his own law-breaking behaviour during the pandemic. Responding to the damning Sue Gray report in the House of Commons, Johnson absurdly called the Labour leader “Sir Beer Korma”.
But as Labour belatedly began gathering evidence about events on the night of 30 April 2021, after a day of campaigning for the Hartlepool byelection, they became increasingly confident they could show there was, as Durham police said in their statement on Friday, “no case to answer”.
Now Starmer has been cleared of breaking lockdown rules, he can embark wholeheartedly on the challenge of trying to insert Labour into the narrative around Johnson’s ignominious departure – and tar all Tories with the same brush.
Johnson’s departure is, in one sense, a gift to Labour – justifying their focus on Tory sleaze and underlining the deep divisions in the warring Conservative party, which will be keenly visible in the coming leadership contest.
Starmer was widely felt to have performed well in prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, capturing the seriousness of the allegations against Chris Pincher as Conservative MPs sat glum-faced behind their flailing leader.
His description of the ministers rallying to Johnson’s side – the charge of the lightweight brigade – was one of his better jibes too.
And as Johnson’s premiership ebbed away on Thursday after a mass ministerial walkout, Starmer was pictured in the July sunshine, catching a tennis match at Wimbledon with his wife, Victoria.
But despite his triumphant week, the end of Johnson’s political career is also a double-edged sword for Starmer.
Some Labour MPs are concerned that he may not be as good a foil for a fresh Tory leader – Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak or whoever it turns out to be – as he is for the chaotic Johnson, against whom Starmer’s seriousness and caution appear as assets.
He will need to act fast to pin the parlous state of the economy and public services, as well as Johnson’s legacy of sleaze and lies, on the entire Tory party and its 12 years in power.
Next week’s plan for a motion of no confidence in the government is a part of that project: it has little chance of success, but will force Conservative MPs to vote to prop up Johnson’s caretaker cabinet – allowing Labour to castigate them for supporting him.
And with the shadow of “beergate” lifted, Starmer has a few crucial months in which to set out what he stands for, and show he can capture the public’s imagination as the positive alternative to a Tory party tearing itself apart.
