Senior Labour sources have confirmed that Durham Police have NOT been back in touch with Keir Starmer over beer footage after a tough interview in which he swerved the question four times.
The Labour leader accused the Conservatives of "whipping the issue up" and "mud-slinging" as he said the police had concluded their investigation months ago.
Mr Starmer did not confirm or deny if the police had been in touch with him, after Tory MP Richard Holden urged the police to reopen a probe into the Labour leader’s conduct during lockdown last year.
In a tense clash on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, he said: "The police looked at this months ago and came to a clear conclusion that was ‘no rules were broken’, and that’s because no rules were broken.
“Look, they’ve already concluded their investigation, no rules were broken and this is simply being whipped up as mud-slinging by the Tories.
"There was no party, no rules were broken, that is the long and short of it."
He added: “We were working, we stopped for food, no party, no rules were broken; I don’t know what I can add to that.”
Asked if he returned to work after the beer, he replied: “Yes, the idea that nobody works at 10 o’clock at night is absurd.”
When asked why he simply wouldn't answer the question he added: "I don't know what more I can add to that."
A Labour source said: "They haven't been in touch and he didn't break the rules."
Mr Starmer has previously admitted his office made a “mistake” by wrongly claiming his deputy Angela Rayner was not there on the night he had a beer during election campaigning in Durham on 30 April 2021.
Labour’s leader said on Sunday: “We simply made a mistake, it’s a genuine mistake.
“I don’t think anybody would seriously say Keir Starmer ’s team would lie to the media about this. We made a mistake.” He went on: “From time to time a mistake is made, it was a genuine mistake and I take responsibility for that.”
It came as the Mail on Sunday accused Ms Rayner of being the person who originally told a joke about crossing and uncrossing her legs to distract Boris Johnson at PMQs, like Sharon Stone in the film Basic Instinct.
Ms Rayner had dismissed the original story as “desperate, perverted smears”.
Labour have not denied the Mail’s claim that she made a light-hearted reference to her “ginger g***ler” to MPs on the Commons terrace.
