‘We did nothing wrong’: Starmer refuses to apologise AGAIN over picture of him drinking with workmates during lockdown – claiming he was just enjoying a beer with a takeaway during election campaign
- The Labour leader facing pressure over the event last April on campaign trail
- Footage of Sir Keir from April 30, 2021 shows Labour leader bottle in hand
- He told LBC today he was having the drink with a late-night takeaway meal
Keir Starmer again refused to apologise today over pictures of him drinking with political aides during lockdown – saying he was enjoying a beer with his dinner.
The Labour leader insisted he did nothing wrong as he faced pressure over the event last April in the wake of Boris Johnson’s partygate scandal.
Facing angry listeners questions on LBC today, Sir Keir said he had a bottle of beer with a takeaway while working on the local elections campaign trail in County Durham. At the time indoor socialising was banned.
The Tories has suggested there are parallels between his situation and that of Boris Johnson.
The PM was photographed drinking in the Downing Street garden in May 2020 at what No10 says was an evening business meeting.
Sir Keir told LBC no restaurants or pubs were open and the hotel he and colleagues were staying in did not serve food so ‘if you didn’t get a takeaway then our team wasn’t eating that evening’.
‘The restrictions allowed people to work when they needed to, we were running an election campaign, we were in a constituency office,’ he added.
Asked if he was prepared to apologise, Sir Keir said: ‘We didn’t break any rules, we were working in the office and we stopped for a takeaway … we did nothing wrong.’
Facing angry listeners questions on LBC today, Sir Keir said he had a bottle of beer with a takeaway while working on the local elections campaign trail in County Durham. At the time indoor socialising was banned.
Footage of Sir Keir from April 30, 2021 shows Labour leader bottle in hand at the office in Durham
Sir Keir said he usually travelled with a team of around six people and the incident took place in City of Durham MP Mary Foy’s office.
Last night former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith led the calls for Sir Keir to apologise.
He said: ‘Instead of trying to weasel his way out of this, accusing the Prime Minister of making hopeless excuses, it now appears he is in the same boat.
‘It is now for Keir Starmer to ‘man up’ and show he is prepared to apologise.’
Michael Fabricant added: ‘If the Prime Minister can apologise for a secure Downing Street garden event where nobody could have joined in from outside, it is a bit graceless of Keir Starmer not to profusely apologise for an event in an office that was not guarded and could have been a real Covid spreader.
‘While what happened in Downing Street was not a good look, it was far safer from a Covid point of view than Keir Starmer’s party.’
Tory backbencher Andrew Bridgen, who has called for the Prime Minister to go over recent scandals, said of Sir Keir: ‘People in glass houses shouldn’t throw too many stones.
‘His hypocrisy is worse than the Prime Minister’s, because he is attacking the Prime Minister for doing what he’s done himself.
‘People can judge for themselves whether or not he broke the rules.’
The footage of Sir Keir – taken on April 30, 2021 – showed the Labour leader with a bottle in one hand.
He is pictured chatting with a woman – believed to be fellow Labour MP Mary Foy – in her constituency office in Durham.
At least five people appeared to be inside the room.
On the BBC’s Sunday Morning show, the Labour leader insisted he had not broken any rules, despite being pictured mixing indoors last April, when this was banned under ‘step two’ restrictions.
He said it was fine for him to drink with others because it was a work meeting in the run-up to last year’s local elections.
Asked if he had broken Covid rules, Sir Keir said: ‘No, I haven’t. I was in a constituency office just days before the election. We were very busy, we were working in the office and we stopped for something to eat.
‘And then we carried on working. That is the long and the short of it. No party, no breach of the rules and absolutely no comparison with the Prime Minister.’
Asked by presenter Sophie Raworth whether the drinking of beer was ‘reasonably necessary for work purposes’, the Labour leader said: ‘We’d stopped to eat a takeaway whilst we were working in the office and then we carried on.’
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