Keir Starmer faces a police investigation into his lockdown curry, after repeatedly demanding Boris Johnson should quit for breaching rules in similar circumstances. MailOnline has more.
The Labour leader is at risk of being engulfed by the so-called ‘Beergate’ row after Durham Police dramatically declared it will probe “significant new information” about the gathering.
The force initially decided Sir Keir did not breach Covid rules when he and party aides had drinks and a takeaway in April 2021, when millions of Britons were banned from mixing indoors in most circumstances. But following intense pressure and a series of revelations – including that up to 30 people attended and shared £200 worth of food – the position has shifted.
Sir Keir maintained a stony silence as journalists threw questions about the situation on a visit to Carlisle this afternoon. Labour said the party was “happy to answer any questions there are and we remain clear that no rules were broken”.
However, there is frustration among Tories that the decision was only taken after the local elections – when the PM’s own fine over the Partygate scandal damaged his support.
The development could raise serious doubts over Sir Keir’s future, as he trenchantly argued that Mr Johnson should resign when he was found to have broken the law.
Sir Keir had been filmed drinking a bottle of lager with colleagues at the event at the offices of Durham MP Mary Foy in the run-up to last year’s local elections – and has been wriggling when asked about the incident all week.
Sadiq Khan risked inflaming the row earlier this week by admitting there was “equivalence” between Keir Starmer’s actions and the PM’s birthday gathering in the Cabinet Room in June 2020 – which has seen him and Chancellor Rishi Sunak fined. Mr. Khan suggested the main difference was that the Labour leader only broke lockdown once.
Tory MP Richard Holden, backed by several ministers, wrote to Durham Constabulary insisting there was now “incontrovertible” evidence Labour had “lied” about the events of a year ago, including there now disproved claim that the deputy leader Angela Rayner was not there.
A spokesman for Durham Constabulary said:
Earlier this year, Durham Constabulary carried out an assessment as to whether COVID-19 regulations had been breached at a gathering in Durham City on April 30th 2021. At that time, it was concluded that no offence had been established and therefore no further action would be taken. Following the receipt of significant new information over recent days, Durham Constabulary has reviewed that position and now, following the conclusion of the pre-election period, we can confirm that an investigation into potential breaches of COVID-19 regulations relating to this gathering is now being conducted.
As with Partygate, for sceptics the criticism is not that Starmer and others were having a gathering, which sceptics think should never have been illegal. It’s that they were attending one while supporting the very restrictions that made most such gatherings against the law. Boris’s offence was made worse by being the writer of the rules. For Starmer, it is his repeated calls for restrictions to be tougher and longer that aggravates his (alleged) offence. In all cases, it exposes that these political leaders did not fear the virus that they were telling the country to cower in their homes and make huge sacrifices to avoid catching or passing on. The same politicians who stoked the fear and clamour for restrictions are now being eaten by the monster of public indignation and grief that they created. Will they learn? Somehow I doubt it.
Worth reading in full.
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“Because it was his own staff association that was taking action against him, they would not fund any legal advice or action in support of his defence…“
…Straight out of the Franz Kafka playbook diligently followed by yet another captured institution – Add the Police Federation to the long list of unions and professional bodies adept at representing themselves, but less inclined to represent their members.
The irony is that I’d bet good money they wouldn’t have sacked him if he’d not been white. I know that had he been ‘BAME’ he’d hardly have been likely to have made these comments in the first place but it’s now abundantly clear that as long as the racism is geared towards white people ( by coloured people or other whites, shamefully ) then it’s all good, because nowadays it’s repackaged as ”positive discrimination” most of the time, and that’s acceptable, according to Clown World logic. But whistleblowers/dissidents must be quashed and silenced at all costs. A tale as old as time.
It would be remiss of me not to conclude that the little khant’s brown fingers are all over this. And the envelopes too.
I think the Khant would ethnically cleanse London of white people if he could.
That’s in train isn’t it?
Absolutely.
Sir Knife Crime is doing a pretty good job of it anyway.
Banned from standing is the crucial point here. They don’t dare let the members decide whether what he did or said merits dismissal. I’m sure whoever made this decision claims to believe in “democracy”.
The members should leave the federation.
I think we all know what ”anti-racist” is code for nowadays, don’t we?
”£60k for an “Anti-Racist Practice Lead” at Norfolk County Council.
As a Norfolk MP, I am calling on @NorfolkCC
to dump this poisonous role.
End the ideological rot and focus on delivering efficient services for my constituents.
We don’t want, or need, this political garbage.”
https://x.com/RupertLowe10/status/1915700901353840667
If only he could lead Reform but then that is Nigel Farage Limited which has just taken cash from a former Tory funder who is a Nigerian born Lebanese muslim. Talk about shitting on your support base.
All roads lead to Marxism in today’s woketastic Clown World, and there appears to be little available in the way of an antidote;
”Europe has genuflected to Islam while America has bent the knee to multiculturalism; both are arguably the same. The engine is Marxism, and we’re seeing that what can’t be won at the ballot box is doing amazingly well in the streets and growing in power and acceptance in our courts.
Marxism is more than a textbook definition; it is an always morphing state of mind with only one defining quality: the subservience of the individual to the State and/or an authoritarian that knows best. Whether people call themselves progressive, leftist, anarchist, socialist, or communist, among other names, all are ideologies that seek to control people through whatever narrative serves them best.
Today, that narrative is multiculturalism, a cultural reworking of economic Marxism. The goal is to restrict individuals’ ability to think and act in their best interest in favor of the imperial “they,” with few knowing who actually pulls the strings (visualize Biden’s Trojan Horse presidency).
The connective tissue of multiculturalism uniformly weaves a misleading tale of caring for the downtrodden and those who, for whatever reason, aren’t enjoying being part of a country of free and self-reliant people. Part of that connective tissue is incipient hatred for the successful, especially independent thinkers and entrepreneurs. We see this vividly play out in violent and illogical demonstrations on our campuses and streets by uneducated young people led by professional agitators.
The beauty of the left’s hatred is that it never has to be based on provable truths; it just must be believed, much like any other religion that demands faith over provable fact. While not a religion per se, it takes on many of the same trappings, fooling weak and uneducated minds with popular narratives in place of actual knowledge and truth.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/04/multiculturalism_s_marxist_roots.html
So, there you have it folks…
Not even trying to hide it any longer
So it reduces to the Police Federation Boss being sacked after having the courage to tell the truth that is, in any case, clear for all to see. British society, employers, institutions, as well as Policing, are rife with precisely the dynamic that he so well describes.
If you live in a British city and you aren’t concerned about self-defence ten you are ignoring reality. The use of knives has increased dramatically and will increase a lot more in the near future. Different mindset when you have to assume that everyone is tooled up.
Through a present red wine haze I seem to remember in the run up to my retirement from the Met a whispering campaign to set up an alternative to the Met Federation.
There are two main reasons to join the Federation; legal representation should the sh1t hit the fan, and secondly for some of the financial benefits that come with membership (discounts at certain retailers, investment plans, and such like).
Were I still in the Job, I would absolutely consider that alternative because I wouldn’t want to send another penny to the ar5ehole5 at the official Federation.
Who actually sacked him?
Did all of the members hold a ballot?
As I understand it, the “rank and file”members like and support Mr Prior and they had no say in the decision to sack him, are they wrong?
Perhaps the 30,000 members could grow a backbone and withdraw their membership and subs?
The Federation should represent its members so the Federation should support whoever is elected by the members, and not ban someone from running for election.
Unless they are not interested in representing their members and are pushing an ideology.
Every institution is captured. This is the danger of consolidating great power into the hands of a few. For the weak, offices of governance is a draw to power they would be incapable of achieving on their own merits alone. The solution is for freedom loving people to contest appointment to these offices and drive the scumbags out.