Starmer gambled Labour’s fortunes on his integrity – no wonder he’s in deep trouble

‘Keir Starmer declared in a Monday afternoon press conference that he will resign if issued with a fixed penalty notice.’ Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

For Keir Starmer’s team, Beergate has proven to be a bonfire of delusions.

It may well be that Durham police, which took no action over Dominic Cummings’ eye-testing sojourn to Barnard Castle, absolves the Labour leader over lockdown beers and curry after a campaign event last year. Even so, this episode offers salutary lessons. The whole shtick of Starmer’s team is that the grownups are back in the room. Jeremy Corbyn and his team, they believed, were fundamentally bad at politics, and brought rightwing media attacks on themselves, the thrust of which Starmer’s team believed were largely justified anyway.