Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said that the 'curry and beer gathering' which took place during lockdown and currently under investigation by the police was held for work purposes and did not breach any coronavirus rules. Sir Keir appeared on Loose Women today and spoke about the reinvestigation into Beergate and revealed he will step down as the leader of the Labour Party if it is ruled he was in the wrong.
Ruth Langsford asked Sir Keir about a recent poll where 63 per cent of voters branded him a hypocrite, after he called for Boris Johnson to resign for misleading MPs over Downing Street parties. Sir Keir said, “I think the big difference is that I’ve been very clear I haven’t broken the rules, but equally I’ve said that if the police do issue me with a fixed penalty notice, I will do the right thing and I will step down.
"So I’ve put everything on the line because I think that’s the right thing to do - that is the complete opposite of the Prime Minister, who has already been found to be breaking the rules.” On calling for Mr Johnson’s resignation before a police investigation began, Sir Keir said: “By then we already knew there was industrial-scale rule-breaking in Downing Street. We’d had so many examples, including the example of the suitcase of booze coming in on the eve of Prince Phillip’s funeral, so it was a completely different situation.”
Ruth asked about the curry takeaway for 30 people, which Sir Keir was reported to have had with other Labour party members and Sir Keir replied: “It wasn’t 30 people, that’s already been retracted, we were just on the road.” Panellist Jane Moore then asked how many were at the curry takeaway and Sir Keir said: “Fifteen or so. We were on the road… it was the local election last year and during the local election. When we’re not in parliament, my job is to be on the road with the team, doing visits, doing media with local leaders, revving everyone up.”
Jane then asked: “How is it different to Boris Jonson being in the cabinet office in the middle of lots of meetings during the day and somebody bringing in a cake that he didn’t eat?” And Sir Keir said: “I don’t know exactly what happened in his situation - obviously the police have looked into that. I can tell you exactly what happened - I’m travelling with a team. The team is always pretty much the same, we’ve got a camera person, a videographer, a comms advisor, a policy advisor, somebody from my leader’s office who organises the visit, two protection officers and me - that’s the eight I travel with everywhere I go.”
Jane replied, “Because you were so noisy about partygate, this has come back and hit you in the face...”Sir Keir responded: “The two differences are - one, we were not doing anything wrong at all. When you’re on the road, every campaigning politician knows that’s what happens - you travel with your team. You work in an office, somebody organises food for you, you get on with it and you repeat the next day. When you’re not in parliament, that’s what happens.
“I haven’t broken the rules, but my instinct as soon as I knew Durham had decided they were going to reopen this investigation, in my heart I knew what I was going to say, which is if I’m wrong and they find I have broken the law, then I’ll do the right thing and step down… I hope that isn’t going to happen, I don’t think that’s going to happen. But I’m trying to make a bigger point here, because there’s allegations - who did what/when. But there’s a bigger point here, which is trust in politics. The number of times I hear, ‘You’re all the same, you won’t do the right thing’.”
He continued: “I think trust is everything in politics - we’re talking about the cost of living crisis. People are really worried about their bills. They need a government they can trust. When it says it’s going to do something, is it going to do it? Does it take responsibility?
“So I have put everything on the line for that honour and that integrity because I don’t believe all politicians are the same. It’s very important to me that we don’t sync into this where everybody thinks politicians… because then people lose trust in democracy - why should I vote if you’re all the same?
“This is not just about these particular allegations for me, it’s about who I am as a politician. I came into politics late in life, having done other things. I came in to make a difference and I want to show we’re not all the same and in the event I’m wrong, and the police say I have done something wrong, then I will step down and do the honourable thing. I think it’s very important for me to say that and I have said that. As soon as I knew there was a reinvestigation, I knew I was going to say that because that was so deep down inside me into what I believe in.”
