Sir Keir Starmer
(Picture: PA Wire)Sir Keir Starmer says police have not contacted him and have closed all investigations into an alleged breach of lockdown rules at a Labour gathering.
The Labour leader has faced increasing pressure to explain an event where he was filmed swigging from a bottle of beer in a room with others on April 30, 2021.
He has insisted he had stopped for a takeaway with his team, who had been election campaigning, before resuming work at Durham Miners Hall just after 10pm.
However several Tory MPs have urged Durham Police to look again at the event, dubbed “beergate”.
On Wednesday, Sir Keir was asked if he had been questioned by detectives since an initial probe earlier this year.
“I think [police] put out a statement last week saying they’re not reinvestigating and they haven’t spoken to me,” he told ITV.
Describing the event, he added: “We’re on the road at the end of the day, we’re in the office preparing. Now, that evening, from memory, we were doing an online event for members because we had this get out the vote thing.
“At some point, this was in the evening, everybody’s hungry and then that takeaway was ordered. Restaurants and pubs were closed, so takeaways were really the only way you could eat.
“So, this was brought in and at various points people went through the kitchen, got a plate, had some food to eat and got on with their work.”
At the time of the event, England was under rules that banned indoor gatherings of people from different households.
However, there was an exemption for “work purposes”.
Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner was also at the event, a claim the party had previously denied. The party said it was the “mistake” to say she was not there and made in “good faith”.
Several cabinet ministers have suggested Durham police should reinvestigate the Labour gathering after the Met Police fined Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak for breaking lockdown rules for attending the Prime Minister’s birthday party in the Cabinet room in Downing Street in June 2020.
Durham Police has confirmed it is not investigating any claims Sir Keir broke lockdown rules.
Evidence of a dozen alleged parties held in Downing Street and across Whitehall during lockdown has been passed to the Met police. At least two were attended by the Prime Minsiter.
The force fined attendees of the Prime Minister’s surprise birthday party and is believed to have handed fixed penalty notices to people who were at a civil servant’s leaving party on June 18 2020 and another leaving party for the former No 10 director of communications James Slack on April 16 2021.
The Met said it would not make public the details of any more “partygate” fines until after the local elections on May 5.
