‘Indefensible’ lockdown breach a step too far for some
Labour MPs have begun dodging and even cancelling appearances and interviews in order to avoid having to defend Keir Starmer over his ‘beergate’ lockdown drinks, according to PoliticsJOE – with at least one MP describing Starmer’s actions as ‘indefensible’ and expressing disbelief at Starmer’s claims he broke no ‘rules’, although they were in fact laws in force at the time.
Durham Police have announced that they are re-opening an investigation into the incident after new evidence came to light – which must include the fact that the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner was also at the event and that this was denied by Labour until the party was forced into an admission by photographic evidence and tweets from the time of the gathering. One MP told the site:
If they hadn’t lied about Angela, I’d be more inclined to believe them. If I jump to defend him, I’ll look more stupid [than] the Tories.
Photos of Rayner at the event were tweeted on the same night the gathering took place and subsequently deleted.
Starmer has faced even more media pressure today because he previously said the mere fact that Boris Johnson was under investigation was enough reason for the Tory PM to resign. Now Starmer is being asked why the same does not apply now that he is under police investigation – the first opposition leader to find himself in that position.
Starmer and Labour continue to deny that any ‘rules’ were broken, even though lockdown laws and party rules in force at the time banned gatherings of more than six outdoors, mixing indoors among different households and non-essential travel such as holding a gathering in Durham while campaigning in a by-election in Hartlepool.
News of the investigation came as Starmer and some media attempted to spin his dismal day in the local elections – outshone by the Greens and LibDems and losing ground to the Tories in many areas outside London – as a success. Neither he nor Rayner are expected to resign because of the investigation, despite the desperate and obvious need for someone prominent in UK politics to show some integrity.
As well as MPs avoiding interviews, PoliticsJOE said that at least one is considering cancelling a scheduled panel show appearance to avoid being asked whether Starmer should resign.
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Nobody available for Newsnight.
Well they’d have to come out with something a whole lot more believable than this pearl of wisdom…
The reason that Keir Starmer was there is that he was scheduled to take part in an online rally with Durham’s Labour MP Mary Foy therefore it was entirely reasonable for him to be at her CLP office.
No prizes for knowing who wrote it. An online rally…scheduled after 10pm?
An online rally…Where you can appear remotely from almost anywhere on the planet; bit it’s somehow entirely reasonable for keef to be just 20 mile or so away in a neighbouring constituency MPs office – rather than the constituency he was meant to be campaigning in?
What was so necessary that he had to be on Durham rather than Hartlepool, or even sat at home?🤔
Then of course, neither keef, nor Ange, nor anyone else could remember if Ange was actually there or not, at first …😙🎶
Classic, snide revenge is a dish best served cold tactic from rayner. . Oh she might cop a fine too…But keef will be shown up for the bullshitting hypocrite people always knew he’s been.
That’ll teach ya to blame others for your own shithousery, keef. 😏
Sinn Fein….., “Ourselves alone” are now the largest democratic socialist party in the N.Ireland assembly having taken support away from the sister party of the British labour party “social democat SDLP…
..Nationalist voters mainly Catholic but not exclusively have put their votes behind Democratic socialist Sinn Fein which is a earthquake that will send shockwaves across the whole of Ireland and especially amongst the neo liberal alliance in Dublin who have played the two party game since the formation of the Irish republic.
Can the majority ” will of the people” be allowed by the Westminster DUP alliance? in British Ulster or is the economic black hole of .Ulster too deeply embedded within the crumbling Crown of British rule..Whatever happens in Ulster the six counties will one day be nine in a united Ireland and the walls like eastern germany must come down.PS…..ITs been a rough day for mr Knight of the realm and Winning Westminster for the labour party doesnt make a labour party “and looking across the water must for him and the labour party make them shiver in the realisation that people will vote for socialism and the neo liberal alliance in Westminster are bust along with the greed and corruption that motivates these parasites..This may give the former leader of the Labour party socialist jeremy Corbyn reason to contest his Islington seat for a new socialist labour party.?British politics needs a real Opposition especially now as the country crys out for real change.
Toffee maybe they had run out of booze and realised that the famous cleaner of Hartlepool CLP had dissapeared into the attic along with the brilliant campaign by the CLP Secretary and Hq never to be seen again. in the North?Good morning once again which at my age is a victory in itself
toffee.I see Wirral was a disaster for the liberation of the labour party?
I see Wirral was a disaster for the liberation of the labour party?
Indeed. Unfortunately the smarmer imposed candidate won in my ward. Can’t have it all, I guess.
Well toffee I am just reading a email from Republican News who are claiming that the labour party magic of Sir knight as backfired on the sister party SDLP in Ulster when “Senior figures from the British labour party and fellow neo liberals from the twenty six counties fins gael and fiana foil turned up to help canvassers knocking on doors in Ulster ….they managed to loose the safe SDLP seat when crowds were angered by the labour party intrusion with the scum alliance in from the Irish republic….Check it out stevie boy!..Socialist change and real change will come to Britain.People are sick and tired of being walked on…..
Apparently a member of the Starmer family is on a massive personal bonus if The Tories win the next election!
Any bets some poor party rep will be called upon to take the blame. Don’t do it Mary Foy.
Yeah, Streeting was on Channel4News, last night, talking bo**ocks, as usual. Being very combative with Krishan Guru-Murthy.
As a performance, it was a very good impression of Harry Enfield’s – ‘Kevin’ – the stroppy teenager.
As an advert for a new, New Labour politician, it couldn’t have been worse.
Am I right in thinking, the guy has aspirations to lead the party? God ‘elp us, all!
C4News also wheeled out the Tory defector MP Christian Walkford for an “exchange” with his former collegue Peter Bone.
I gave up at that point and went to sort out the cats supper.
Starmer should resign, immediately!
He’s – not – a politician – never has been – and has no business being leader of The Labour Party, in the first place.
25 months is long enough. The damage he and his cohorts have wreaked on the party is – at the moment – incalculable.
Now, the party should concentrate on repairing that damage.
Resigning, over the Durham Miners’ Hall curry and drinks, would be an easy option, but not the right option.
I want to see him carry his belongings out of Southside, in black bin-bags.
Any other reason the MSM try to come up, with would be stuff and nonsense!
I can enjoy the discomfort Starmer is suffering especially as he was one of many who failed to offer any support to Mr Corbyn when he was being battered by the media but underlying this current story is the threat to democracy posed by newspapers like the Mail. Equally concerning is that the BBC. and other broadcasters slavishly reports every smear these papers concoct .
Defend the indefensible? They could try, but people with votes might realise that these Labour MPs are not as honest as said people-with-votes would like them to be. Labour would be admitting that it’s got a serious dry-rot problem and a new party is needed – a party without neoliberal fungal spores and corrupt, self-serving officials at its very core.
How much of a disappointment has Angela Rayner been.
Elected Deputy to be the left’s guarantor that Starmer would keep to his campaign promises, she’s said sweet FA about the hounding of the left and general grievous treatment of left-wing members, nor has she said anything about Starmer’s abandonment of his pledges; his sucking up to the Sun or his horrendous treatment of Corbyn.
What is the point of Angela Rayner? What is she afraid of? She has a mandate from members.
And as for these elections, does anyone doubt with RLB or Burnham the party would have performed vastly better in the Locals. Labour has had gentle, positive coverage, no backbench sniping Corbyn suffered, and the perfect storm in the form of Johnson’s media monstering over the last 4 months. And yet they tread water electorally. I doubt the press will give Labour a similar advantage in a GE.
I am so glad that I did not vote for either of the current leadership team.
Rayner has been pretty useless as deputy. The problem is that she played the left card, but it did not take long for her careerist credentials to break through after Jeremy stepped down. She has happily joined in the witch-hunt over the generally false antisemitism claims – remember the “thousands” she threatened to expel? – but has been deluded enough to think that if the crunch comes, the left will stand behind her. Well, the truth is that she now has no electoral base in the party where she thinks or expects it to be. Starmer would get rid of her in a blink. But……. We need to keep eyes and ears open for what might be stirring in the undergrowth. After all – there are some in the shadow cabinet who fancy their chances. No matter how deluded they be…..