Sir Keir Starmer: Police have not been in touch over Durham Covid beeron May 4, 2022 at 8:52 am

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The Labour leader says he has had no further contact with the Durham force after claims he broke rules.

Sir Keir Starmer

Image source, PA Media

Sir Keir Starmer has said the police have not contacted him again about accusations he broke lockdown rules by drinking a beer in an MP’s office.

The Labour leader was pictured with the bottle through a window in Durham on 30 April 2021, but was cleared by the local force of breaking any laws.

However, Tory MPs have called for the event to be reinvestigated.

Sir Keir declined to answer on Tuesday’s BBC Radio 4 Today programme if he had spoken to police again.

But speaking to ITV’s GMB on Wednesday, he pointed to a statement by the force last week saying they were not reinvestigating the event, adding: “They haven’t spoken to me.”

The row comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were fined by the Metropolitan Police for attending a birthday party for the PM in Downing Street as part of an investigation into 12 gatherings across government buildings during the pandemic.

Scotland Yard have said at least 50 fines have been issued as a result of their inquiry, but that they will not be announcing any further fixed penalty notices in the run-up to the local election.

Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves told BBC Breakfast there was “a world of difference” between the two incidents, saying Sir Keir had “no case to answer”.

She added: “It didn’t break the rules and the Tory mudslinging is to try and distract from the rule-breaking at No 10, but also from the cost-of-living crisis.”

The picture of Sir Keir was taken in the run-up to the Hartlepool by-election in the office of City of Durham MP Mary Foy.

Labour has always insisted no rules were broken and, in February, Durham Police said they did not believe an offence had been committed.

But local Tory MP Richard Holden wrote to the force last week asking them to reconsider, saying lockdown rules “should be applied equally” between the Labour leader and the prime minister.

Asked if he had been questioned by officers again since Mr Holden’s letter, Sir Keir told GMB: “I think [Durham Police] put out a statement last week saying they’re not reinvestigating and they haven’t spoken to me.”

He then described the event, saying he and his team were “in the office preparing” for the by-election.

‘Restaurants were closed’

“Now, that evening, from memory, we were doing an online event for members because we had this get out the vote thing,” the Labour leader added.

“At some point, this was in the evening, everybody’s hungry and then that takeaway was ordered. It was then delivered into the kitchen.

“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.”

Sir Keir also said that during lockdown his wife had not been able to clean her vulnerable father’s home because she had been sticking to the rules about social contact.

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What were lockdown rules on 30 April 2021?

By Reality Check

On 30 April, England was in the “Step 2” rules, which had been introduced on 12 April.

Gathering indoors with people from outside your household or support bubble was against the law.

There was an exemption for “work purposes”, although working from home was recommended in the guidance, but the rules did not mention socialising at work.

The question for police would have been whether Labour officials eating and drinking together would have been “reasonably necessary for work” and whether drinking beer makes a difference to that.

Sir Keir Starmer told LBC Radio that as pubs and restaurants were closed and his hotel was not serving food, “if you didn’t get a takeaway then our team wasn’t eating that evening”.

Bars, pubs and restaurants were allowed to open outdoors for groups of six people or two households, but indoor service was not allowed.

Durham Police reviewed the video in February this year and said it did not believe an offence had been committed.

The rules on indoor gatherings were the same in June 2020, when Boris Johnson attended a gathering for his birthday, for which he was fined. Gatherings of two or more people indoors were banned by law unless they were reasonably necessary for work purposes.

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