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Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour party, has dismissed claims that he broke Covid rules last year as political mud-slinging as Conservative MPs stepped up their questions about a Labour gathering in Durham last April.
Starmer is facing growing pressure from the Tory party over the event on April 30 2021 at which he was photographed drinking beer with colleagues at a time when indoor socialising was banned.
The Labour leader has said he was election campaigning that day at the Durham Miners Hall and had stopped in the evening for food, a takeaway from a local Indian restaurant, before resuming work.
Durham police have already investigated the matter and concluded that Starmer had not broken any rules. “We have no further update today,” the force said on Tuesday.
But Richard Holden, Conservative MP for North West Durham, recently wrote to the force urging it to reopen its inquiries into the event.
Starmer did not say whether the force had made contact with either him or his office in recent days when asked on the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme on Tuesday.
Instead of answering the question directly, the Labour leader said the Durham police had already come to the “clear conclusion” months ago that no rules had been broken.
“We were working in the office, it was just before elections, we were busy, we paused for food, no party, no rules were broken, that is the long and the short of it,” he said.
“All that has happened last week is that with local elections on the horizon, Conservative MPs have chosen to chuck mud, I can see why they’re doing it.”
One Labour official said that it was “self-evident” that Durham Constabulary had not been in contact given that it had not announced that the investigation would be reopened.
Meanwhile, Starmer has tried to refocus public attention on the local elections on Thursday, saying that his party has the “wind in our sails” ahead of polling day.
But Conservative cabinet ministers have lined up to demand that Durham Constabulary reopen inquiries into the event.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, international trade secretary, said on Tuesday that the force should look at the situation in the “same way” the Metropolitan Police has investigated lockdown breaches in Whitehall.
“I understand there is some work ongoing and I would absolutely encourage [police] to look at it,” she told Sky News.
The Labour party has been forced to admit that its deputy leader Angela Rayner also attended the event, having previously claimed she was not there.
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