Keir Starmer has gambled his career on being cleared over Beergate by making an extraordinary vow to quit if he is fined by police – with Angela Rayner also promising to do the same. MailOnline has the story.
The Labour leader gave a statement after spending hours hunkered down with aides trying to decide how to handle the mounting crisis over the boozy curry event in April last year.
He insisted he is “absolutely clear” no rules were broken and he believes in “honour and integrity” – saying he is “very different” from Boris Johnson.
Sir Keir said he had self-isolated six times, and obeyed the rules when his father-in-law was ill, suggesting even his opponents did not really believe he would have breached them in Durham.
“If the police decide to issue me with a FPN I would of course do the right thing and step down,’ he said – although pushed by journalists he declined to say what he would do if police merely rebuke him publicly.
Angela Rayner echoed his stance, saying in a statement: “If I were issued with a fine, I would do the decent thing and step down.”
The intervention – which raised the prospect of Labour being left without either of its two top politicians – came after a day of building tension, which saw Sir Keir cancel a think-tank event where he would have been grilled by journalists and ignored questions as he left his London home this morning.
He has agreed with senior figures urging him to get on the front foot by committing to resign should Durham Police find he broke Covid rules.
The strategy is high-risk but could potentially leave Sir Keir in a strong position if police do not issue a penalty – while allies suspect he would need to go anyway were he to receive a fine. It also means he will have more leverage in clashes with Mr. Johnson after the Queen’s Speech tomorrow.
He must be hoping the officer in charge of the case isn’t a Tory.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
It’s the decent thing to do.
Why can’t he just quit for being a pointless ditherer who doesn’t know what a woman is?
Oh, come now – he has apparently fathered two children so he must once have had an inkling
So did Michelle Obama, but no one ever saw her pregnant.
I haven’t inkled in ages.
I don’t suppose you managed to get a doctor’s appointment to find out why either…
TMI
Kneeler Starmer – bowing down to BLM- is totally unfit for the role he has been shoe-horned into and has nothing to offer either Labour voters or the country – had he any self-awareness, that should be a sufficient cue for him to resign.
If it were not for the unmitigated disaster of Ed Miliband, he would be the worst “Labour Leader” on record. Corbyn actually had real opinions and so much more integrity
He has totally abdicated any responsibility to lead any party called the ‘Labour’ party in such testing times for ordinary people and appears to occupy a total political vacuum, Johnson having stolen most of his oxygen.
He is the prime example of the utter pointlessness of contemporary politicians and frankly whatever he does or doesn’t do ought to be a matter of total national indifference.
Obviously, on the quiet, he has been told he will not face a fine.
‘Kneeler Starmer – bowing down to BLM-‘
I bet it gets ugly fast when the gay/trans crowd turn up as his office, bending over, kneeling down, he has to do it all.
Agree with most of that, but not the bit re Milliband – he may not have been the greatest leader, but he was still better than Starmer!
So are you, but you’re still around.
Says the person who sets the benchmark for pathetic.
Currently a combined total of 161 people think you’re extremely confused.
Keir Starmer cannot or will not say what a woman is.
Will the PM make a similar honourable pledge?
Honourable is the last word that comes to mind when assessing Starmer’s play.
All he is doing is reminding us all what a circus, freak show politics really is.
They’ll resign over the little stuff like a beer during lockdown. But never the big stuff, like getting found out that they started a war in Iraq under false pretences.
Honourable. What a joke.
No. Fuck off
Why use three words when 2 would have sufficed?
He knows full well they won’t fine him, otherwise he wouldn’t have said it. The Met are a branch of the Labour party anyway.
Well it’s Durham Police in this instance but your point is still valid.
And the Durham Police and Crime Commissioner is Joy Allen, a Labour politician.
First point of call for a worried Starmer then?
Are you aware what the Met is?
Where Cressida Dick ‘Met’ her partner Helen Ball?
This could be a political masterstroke.
Assuming no FPN, then Boris either goes or has to admit he is much less honourable.
Which ever way it goes it’s a body blow to Johnson. For Labour it’s either a win or a big win.
dream on…
Not a lot in it, really. Both are lower than a snake’s belly, but whilst Johnson is a cad and a bounder, Starmer is a sanctimonious “whited sepulchre” legal shyster.
No BJ is a lying buffoon, with nothing between his ears.
Backlash: Why can’t he just quit for being a pointless, dithering cunt who doesn’t know what a woman is?
tree: Your post is quite pathetic.
2 minutes later:
tree: BJ is a lying buffoon, with nothing between his ears
The meds, tree, the meds.
Then I presume that the lying, evasion and prevarication from Starmer in this affair alone is considered by you to be the actions of a truthful, honest man? The difference between the two is that Johnson is a buffoon, but the other lacks even that, as a dictatorial stuffed shirt. I don’t think Johnson has lied about his origins and antecedents as much as The People’s Starmer.
What “lying, evasion and prevarication”?
That which is reported in most informed sources. I wouldn’t know about the BBC, as I shun it.
I agree with tree. Johnson will receive much louder calls for his resignation if Starmer resigned. It’s quite torturous watching people try to make out that the former is somehow morally superior to the latter – because he’s a buffoon?! He’s not even that – it’s all a show and it’s sad to see that people are taken in by it.
Ooh, look at my waltzing into the fray!
We agree on something then.
And the difference with Kneeler is … ???
He’s a c***sucking c**t, whereas Johnson is a shameless one?
So in other words he’s got the nod from his chums at Durham Police that he won’t be fined and therefore feels confident in announcing he’ll resign in the event of something that he knows won’t happen.
How very predictable.
Yet no-one predicted it.
Probably ordered them a bag of curry and a few cans. Job done
But creates a nice sense of jeopardy and political tension while we wait for the verdict.
It is all pure theatre – nothing more than that – something for the red-tops to shout about to distract from the things which are really happening – like people in the UK who cannot afford to heat their homes or feed their families.
Fire service now reporting a surge in domestic fires with people burning what they can find instead of using gas to heat their homes.
Yes – a guy almost set his house alight burning timber to try to heat it.
Reminds me of the hard times in Dublin back in the noughties after the banking crash when people pulled their floorboards up to burn them in the fireplace. Seriously.
False economy, the price of timber is eye-watering
only if you plan to replace it
When I was a student in the 60’s, I lived on £12 a month and whatever I could earn working nights in a chocolate factory, among other places. My residence was two rooms over an archway, with a cold water sink and a privy in the garden. It had a fireplace, and winter 68-69, I burnt a lot of furniture, including the stool with seagrass top that I made at school. Having spent years in boarding schools, privations were expected, but I had friends, beer, music and other compensation. I also had the dread flu of that season.
Really? It’s pretty warm right now. People could just put a jumper on. I’m finding this hard to believe
Those of us who can knit and crochet will be in demand …
That might be fine for younger generations, but for elderly not being able to heat their homes can be life endangering – if they cannot maintain core body temp their blood vessels constrict in effort to preserve heat and that impacts circulation etc ergo risk of strike and heart disease etc.
He’s obviously had the nod via the left-handed bricklayers secret handshake club.
No career trougher would risk it on luck alone.
My thoughts exactly.
He’s taking one for the team and will be rewarded down the line or given a position of authority in the shadows.
Hmm.
Most would consider that “club” to be somewhat right-wing.
Are you confused?
No you are….plenty of “top drawer” Leftists in the Masons.
We ar talking “Up North ” y’know.
Yep everyone in the north is left wing… I forgot.
Starmer is Trilateral Commission, about as facist as you can get without a uniform, a chest full of fake medals, and a stright arm salute, don’t let his party colours and platitudes confuse you.
He is just putting pressure on the police to back down.
Yes – the police don’t want to be responsible for a political crisis.
how would it be a political crisis?
If Starmer is fined, then Raynor will be fined, and both will have to resign. Whilst that’s a celebration for most, it’s a political crisis for the left.
Yes – for the left, but not for the UK as a whole, if confined to a single party it hardly constitutes a political crisis for the whole of the UK
It could be a political opportunity, but I am without a viable alternative. given this Thatcherite conservative will not vote for this current socialist, totalitarian excuse of a Conservative Party, so I might as well vote for the madhouse.
Do you think that 40 million out of the 70 odd million in the UK give a flying fart about a political crisis for the left?
Starmer resigning would just make 10 million have a few beers in celebration and then life would go on as before.
No crisis whatsoever outside of the pointless Westminster village and its media sycophants.
The person I am most angry with in this whole sorry saga is myself, for going along with the hysterical nonsense and obediently cancelling my Christmas plans in line with Govt guidance in the face of this deadly, killer virus. Seeing how many politicians were completely unconcerned about getting together proves it was all hysterical bollocks. It won’t happen again.
Yep, next time just call it a ‘work event’.
You could have just taken stock of the real world, seen that people weren’t actually dropping like flies as they would during a real pandemic and realised it was all a bunch of BS.
Just remember for next time:
I know that this comes off as a bit dickish, but I’m really just making the point that if we were all a bit less media conditioned and more plugged into the real, physical world and trusted our own eyes a bit more, we’d all be so much better off.
I think it’s important to read the corporate media sometimes – it’s useful to be aware of what lies and bullshit they are currently pushing!
So do you think BJ should resign?
For what, for breaking the rules that half the country (at the very least) also broke?
Lockdown rules were really an IQ test. The more you broke them, the higher your IQ.
So you must think Starmer should also stay put, if fined.
stop telling people what they think, or they’ll have you pegged as a narcissist..
oh wait…
So what should Starmer do, in your opinion?
I don’t care, I’m not a billionaire, so my opinion is worth as much as my vote in these things, nothing.
Resign, like Boris also should.
Correct!
Oddly there is support for this view (thumbs).
Yet
There is also lots of support for no-one resigning.
Since the majority on here have the same opinion, what’s going on.
I honestly couldn’t care less.
Yet you are commenting on a story on the subject. Why?
Kim Jong Johnson imposed the rules, of course he should be punished for breaking them but, more importantly, he is evil fir making the rules in the first place.
I say good on you for waking up, and seeing the truth. Many know there is something wrong, that none of it adds up but it’s too painful for them to acknowledge it, especially after all this time, so it’s much easier to be angry, blame people like us, and call it a conspiracy theory! It takes a lot courage to take a long, cold look at yourself and the part you probably unwittingly played. Welcome to the other side! Once you awake you don’t go back to sheep!
One of many who got played.
No shame in it. I mean the government only spent £450Bn convincing people.
“Keir Starmer has gambled his career”
So he’ll resign from the Labour Party AND quit being a solicitor/lawyer?
“Labour’s line is, and always has been, that after a day campaigning, and an evening working in the office on campaign matters, Starmer had a drink while sharing a takeaway meal with party colleagues and that, although England was in lockdown, indoor gatherings were allowed for “work purposes” and that eating and drinking like this was allowed if “reasonably necessary for work”.”
Is it ‘work’, though, trying to make yourself Prime Minister?
Well there’s a point. Who pays them to campaign?
It’s usually prostitution….
That such a montrosity could’ve risen to prominence in the first place should’ve been the issue. I don’t see any replacement being any better. And I set the bar very low. It is utterly disgusting what they have become. When you’re sitting at home cold and shcvering and hungry I don’t imagine that you will care much for the political class.
Both probably already know in advance that they won’t be fined.
This is all political theatre.
And somewhat clever.
Her has always looked like he is being drilled up the arse and is speaking on the pain of death. Whilst ruling over some of the most unjust rulings in British history. I have no sympathy for the man. And I suspect that this sentiment will be shared when the truth is widely shared. There are enemies and there are enemies.
Which rulings are you speaking of?
I can think of a couple off the top of my head…
Keir Starmer as head of the CPS was ultimately responsible for the decision not to bring charges against the serial paedophile Jimmy Savile.
Ian Tomlinsons family could probably think of another one, specially as the ONLY pathologist to say “natural causes” (against his peers findings) was suspended for his unorhtodox methods during autopsies, Starmer gave plod a pass AFTER that.
Rulings are made my the judiciary.
Starmer is a lying globalist weasel just like Boris as such –
Starmer in a couple of months – ‘I wasn’t fined. I was issued a fixed penalty which I paid, I was never found guilty by a court and fined’
He must have been ringing round to make sure he will not be. Any Trilateral Brothers on the watch?
Does anyone remember when Labour represented the indigenous working class?
These days all they do is push anti Angloism whilst promoting every other race.
They do all they can to wreck the traditional family whilst pushing every form of sexual degeneracy.
They promote authoritarian globalist government whilst destroying national democracy.
They are so bad they could be the Tories.
You seem to need a party somewhat to the right of the Tories.
so center left then
Left v right is froth.
I need a party that respects the nation and the rights of the nationals within it, a core right being not be replaced by immigrants.
That’s far right for you then.
Your stock comment. Nothing original?
You know, I think that promoting sexual degeneracy might be the best way to get the young to be respectful and monogamous. After all, promoting monogamy seemed to usher in the ‘sexual revolution’….
The problem is that most of tge indigenous working class still labour under the belief that Labour represents them
The trilateral arrangement is an interesting one given that Japan suffered major economic woes in the 1980s from which it has never recovered. And you can’t put that down to the people, These guys commit suicide if they don’t get top scores on tests. They are intelligent and principled and understand that the two things are intimately entwined. The idea of the trilateral arrangement is a ruse in itself. If it was a genuine trilateral arrangement then some good might’ve come of it.
The Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham is a Labour Party politician
Lunk head knows they will find nothing
In 2020 and 2021 Starmer was running around like a headless chicken demanding harder, earlier, longer lockdowns and intimating that if anyone met up with anyone else at a social occasion then it was certain they and granny would die the most horrendous Covid death as yet known to man. It stands to reason therefore based on what he was saying that he should be charged with attempted murder.
At the very least convicted of congenital stupidity whilst in office.
I don’t think he attempted it, I think he achieved it several thousand times.
He’s had an inside tip that he’ll be OK. County Durham – Old Labour territory with a history of corruption. It would be droll if he’d said “Clear me but not Angela.” But he’s a shyster by trade so that would presumably be par for the course.
Can’t possibly have two labour politicians facing resignation, so neither will be fined.
Why not have 22 facing resignation? If you include the Mayor of London….
She should be fined for her fringe. Criminal.
If Starmer receives a fine then resigns, would this not leave Boris in a moral predicament?
Morality has yet to trouble Boris.
Just ask him about the morality of his approach to Julian Assange….that has about as much morality as paedophilia.
Keir Starmer Pledges to Quit if Fined By Police Over Beergate.
Perhaps I’m over dramatising.
With a career in the legal profession I think he must know whichever way it goes, he loses.
He used to be DPP. If anyone has got an inside track into who is going to be charged it will be him and his ec-mates there….
yep – he has deffo put feelers out – indirectly of course – nothing that can be traced back to him, can’t be too careful and all that.
He really isn’t important his trilateral connections don’t mean a great deal. It does mean that there is a complete vacuum where the Labour party used to be. As to what comes next I fear that it will not be conducted in such a civilised way. Do it while you can, attempt to create some sense of unity in the country because we will need that when things become nasty
He won’t get fined so a non story. Just more BS for the MSM to froth about to the plebs.
It won’t be suit a versus suit b in a few weeks time. It will be how the hell do I stay alive for the next two weeks. Believe me the whole political class will seem like a distant memory.
Either you put it together now and connect with those around you or you don’t. I’m just saying that the cost of remaining unconnected is growing.
Such a shame.
his could have made for an interesting discussion.
However I had to abandon it after it had been hi-jacked by Tree – who isn’t interested in any kind of real consideration of the issues; s/he just wants to chip away at the debate to restore ‘the narrative’. Every time.
I wouldn’t worry about it. Everyone just laughs at tree. He’s a plank, well, almost…….
Not sure I understand your objection to Tree’s original comment.
Is it not the case that this could be a really clever move by Starmer?
The fact that most on here seem to hate him isn’t a factor.
I am interested to know why the fixed penalty notice is the decider. It is quite possible to be adjudged to have broken the rules but to waive the penalty (I suspect Starmer has an inside line on the Durham plod deciding retrospective fines are inappropriate.
Given that Starmer is a legal man you would think guilt was an important factor and that the penalty is secondary, after all in a court the jury decides on guilt or innocence but the judge applies the penalty.
If the Police don’t give Starmer a fine, the Common Law Constables of the Guardians300 can give him one.
Then the Alpha Male Assemble can kick his pizza box in.
doesn’t he look a strong and capable leader
You stick with the Buffoon.
No!!!! and it looks like someone has sprayed a can of hairspray over that perfectly arranged hairdo to keep it in place after the plastic protect no one from nothing visor was pulled over his face.
Utterly pathetic.
What a mong.
Hes not very good at Logic is he?
“Self isolated 6 times”
Fully vaxxed with the quackcine.
Fervent lockdown true believer etc
Are you trying to say something meaningful?
Well, Nessimmersion, I made a similar point the other day and no one seemed to get that he could still have been jabbed with nothing more than saline. Please don’t try to tell me that someone who fits TPTB class got the real thing – I just won’t believe it.
Lots of politicos announced that they were “self-isolating” because of ‘covid’ when they wanted to dodge a media scrum for a lengthy period until a kerfuffle had died down and they had the perfect excuse to do so because of the virtue signalling by declaring they were self-isolating AND they could produce a positive PCR test to prove it because the tests are fraudulent to begin with and can be made to prove whatever you want them to prove.
The fact that the 6 times self-isolation might prove the jabs that he seemed to be so keen on were worthless is neither here nor there really.
The next stage of this will be to compare the Met and Durham for their approach to Rishi and Kier. Probably at a Judicial Review.
This could run on
And you think Durham will be keen to be found wanting, compared to Met, by letting Starmer off the hook???
Whatever happens, this is gravy for us. I love how the covidians are squirming.
To pre-empt frivolous and vexatious questions from tree, I think more or less every MP and most of the rest of the establishment should be barred from holding public office for life for perpetrating the biggest fraud and stupidity in UK peacetime history.
That’s nowhere near enough punishment.
The damage done to us over the last 2 and a bit years is so great that, at the very least, the Cabinet deserve to be executed.
Well I would be surprised and disappointed if criminal offences were not found to have been committed, but it will never come to that. I’d be happy with banishment, humiliation and a general recognition of the magnitude of what they had done. My great great grandchildren might read about that in history books.
It will never come to any kind of punishment.
Tony Blair is still alive and rich.
Indeed, nothing in any of our lifetimes.
I’m not sure he’s actually alive. He kind of looks sepulchral.
Ghoulish
And Knighted.
Was it you who claimed the moral high ground?
Splinter, progeny of Tree.
All the “establishment” committed fraud.. Really?
What a silly statement. No wonder this tiny band cannot persuade people of their arguments.
FO, tree.
Well argued.
tree really showed up on this one, didn’t it?!
I was hoping it’d appear on the Sweden thread and some of the “vaccines are useless” threads the other day but perhaps even it realised it would have been in for a heavy defeat.
“Certainty about someone’s faults and motivations is no different from the unwavering certainty of Lockdown zealots.”
I’m not sure exactly which comments you are referring to, but one thing I’ve always felt sets my position apart from the lockdown zealots’ position is that while I think I am right, and so do they, I am not proposing to lock them in their homes or take their businesses away or force them to wear things that restrict their breathing, stop them travelling or force them to take experimental medical treatments. They are free do believe whatever nonsense they wish to, as long as they don’t impose it on me.
Hardly a rational argument.. just a collection of standard comments from the sceptics’ toolkit.
You have presented no arguments whatsoever because there are no rational arguments for lockdown.
“if we think we hold the moral high ground”
But we clearly do.
The idea that our opponents are well-meaning people uninfluenced by either carrots or sticks who just keep on making mistakes is laughable.
What makes you think you hold the moral high ground?
Easy, he doesn’t demand man be sacrificed, as an end in itself, unlike the Branch Covidian doomsday cult.
There is nothing open minded about these “SCEPTICS” .
They are just doggedly opposed to the mainstream narrative/facts/opinion, on any subject.
You are doggedly for Communism
That’s an interesting question?
How did you draw that conclusion?
It wasn’t a question, it was a statement of fact.
Lockdown is communist, it is a policy imported from a communist dictatorship that has concentration camps.
I drew the conclusion from elementary observation of reality.
I expect there are people who go on protests and ‘demos’ simply because that’s something they do as a way of life. A day out in London meeting like-minded ‘sheep’ waving placards and shouting slogans gives them a massive dopamine hit from all that virtue-signalling in front of their mates.
They then return home with a glow, kidding themselves with the belief that they have “at least tried to do something” yet knowing that, in reality, they have achieved nothing, and the rest of the country has carried on with their daily routine oblivious to the fact that there was even a protest.
Quit, you c^nt.
lets hope the investigation is not already complete and this is just a high and mighty gesture after knowing the result.
Wouldn’t surprise me.
He seems a bit on the overly confident side about his “gamble”
Keir Starmer should resign for endlessly demanding ever tougher and longer lockdown.
He should be sentenced to life imprisonment in Michael Moore’s underpants.
Coward…as well as a gobshyte…
With respect to the last paragraph above, it’s might not be a “high risk” if he’s made a back handed deal with the Met? You never know with people like that.
A totally irrelevant promise, they’ve already been tipped the wink by the woodentops that they won’t be charged. Did anybody think that these 2 muppets have any principles?
He’s probably already been told what’ll happen and feels safe.
But what if it is a double con/bluff.
He’s been told what will happen, feels safe, makes his announcement.
What if someone gets cold feet and cannot follow through with the promise of no FPN?
Many a slip twixt cup and lip.
Oh In that case I do hope they fine him.
Is he being advised by Blair. Durham Police are Labour supporters. He knows they won’t ‘find’ anything. Politics is a game of deceit and corruption. Starmer should never have stood for leadership in the first place if he had an ounce of decency in him. The Labour Party should never have endorsed him if they had any honesty about them.
Honestly, who cares. These politicians are such a bunch of clowns, it really does not matter what starmer does or does not do. Same for all the rest of them. Sack all of them, get in robotic AI, that can make sound decisions. It is obvious humans cannot.
“He must be hoping the officer in charge of the case isn’t a Tory.”
really?
you had better think that one through….
What a ridiculous mess. Starmer supported all the damaging and confusing covid laws, including telling the police to dish out fines with no reference to a court. Now we are in the position of cops effectively deciding who leads the opposition, and perhaps who leads the government. Mad, bad and dangerous.
He should never have stood in the first place courtesy of his unprincipled pushing of prosecutions of Julian Assange.
It puzzles me that a lawyer and former Director of Public Prosecutions really does not know whether he has broken any rules or not. At the very least he should be shouting that the rules were not clearly written! But then he seems to have voted for them…
If a lawyer has no idea about what the rules mean, how can ordinary citizens know? Who writes these rules?