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BRITAIN’S LABOUR LEADER Keir Starmer has welcomed the findings of a Durham Police investigation that he did not break Covid regulations during a visit to the city while campaigning last year.
Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner had promise to resign if they received fines in relation to the gathering in the offices of a local Labour MP in April 2021.
But after re-opening an inquiry into the event, where Starmer was picture drinking from a bottle of beer, Durham Police found there was no case to answer regarding any of the participants.
In a statement, the force said the restrictions in place at the time on social gatherings had not been violated due to the application of an exception “namely reasonably necessary for work”.
While Starmer and Rayner, who was also present, had always maintained their innocence, the finding will have come as a huge relief to Labour.
The investigation, if it had resulted in fixed penalty notices, would have plunged the party into political turmoil just as Westminster was grappling with the resignation of Boris Johnson.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Starmer said: “I’ve always said no rules were broken when I was in Durham.
“For me, this was always a matter of principle. Honesty and integrity matter. You will always get that from me.”
Rayner added: “Integrity matters in politics.
“The contrast with the behaviour of this disgraced Prime Minister couldn’t be clearer.”
The gathering, dubbed “beergate”, took place during a visit to Durham ahead of the Hartlepool by-election.
Starmer was videoed drinking a bottle of beer over a takeaway curry with colleagues in the offices of MP, Mary Foy.
At the time, non-essential retail and outdoor venues including pub gardens were open, but social distancing rules, which included a ban on indoor mixing between households, remained in place.
Durham Police initially investigated and found there was no evidence of rule-breaking, but looked at the case again following the intervention of North West Durham Tory MP Richard Holden in April.
Investigation
A Durham Police statement released on Friday said: “Following the emergence of significant new information, an investigation was launched by Durham Constabulary into a gathering at the Miners’ Hall, in Redhills, Durham on April 30 2021.
“That investigation has now concluded.
“A substantial amount of documentary and witness evidence was obtained which identified the 17 participants and their activities during that gathering.
“Following the application of the evidential Full Code Test, it has been concluded that there is no case to answer for a contravention of the regulations, due to the application of an exception, namely reasonably necessary work.
“Accordingly, Durham Constabulary will not be issuing any fixed-penalty notices in respect of the gathering and no further action will be taken.
“The investigation has been thorough, detailed and proportionate.
“The final evidence supplied by participants from the local constituency was returned to Durham Police on July 5 and analysed by investigators against all the evidence before the investigation was concluded on July 8 2022.”
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Sure nobody is to be going outside so it’s fine.
Stay in, watch some tv, read a book, stay warm.
The English is ur opening paragraph is really poor.
@Gina Carroll: People in glasshouses……
@Gina Carroll: I can’t see anything wrong with the English in the opening paragraph.
And by the way, you should really spell check your comments before you send them. Especially when criticising other people.
You have a great day now.
@Karl Lyons: In the heading there is no full stop after days.
In the first paragraph the first 3 words are all capitalised.
@Gina Carroll: It’s in English! Maybe you meant to say the grammar? Oh and it’s your not “UR” text talk makes me batty, the phones have predictive text, it couldn’t be simpler
@Melina Roberts: people are so picky on here!
@Melina Roberts: people are so picky on here!
@Gina Carroll: I tink its all spelt just fine
@Karl Lyons: I would have grave concerns over the use of the word “Especially” at the beginning of a sentence. It is certainly not acceptable in formal or academic writing. There should also be no space before a comma. The only ending punctuation mark that sometimes needs to be preceded by a space is a dash.
@David Connell: A heading doesn’t need a full stop as it’s a heading.
And the capitalisation at the start of a paragraph is to emphasise or signal the beginning of an article for the reader.
@Gina Carroll: lol! The irony.
@Kevin Arnold: You should look bit closer and you’ll see that there is no space before the comma. It just seems that way because of the letter y.
Hands up to my grammatical error with the word especially.
@David Connell: It’s a heading and fullstops don’t tend to be used in headings. The capitalization of the first 3 words tends to be a standard in many newspaper articles and book chapters if you ever pick them up.
@Gina Carroll: ur englush noot grate eithur.
@Melina Roberts: F All else to do !
@Gina Carroll: I agwee
Any chance the weathermen could give us some sun? What did we do to them?
I saw a UFO for 10 seconds this morning somebody said it was the Sun
Dublin got its fair share of rain this morning all the same.
have your say