Starmer lists Beergate attendees and vows he WILL quit if fined

Keir Starmer today listed attendees of the Beergate event including his videographer and comms adviser as he tried to clear up confusion on numbers.

The Labour leader was grilled about his own alleged lockdown-breaching furore as he gleefully seized on Boris Johnson‘s confidence vote woe.

Durham Police is currently looking into his beer and curry night with aides in April last year, which Sir Keir insists was essential work during the election campaign.

But there have been complaints that the party initially denied that Angela Rayner was present, before admitting she was. At first 30 people were said to be there, before the figure was revised down to around 15.

Asked during an LBC phone-in this morning, Sir Keir gave a roll call of those who attended. And he reiterated his vow to quit if he is fined, saying that made him ‘different’ from the PM. 

Asked during an LBC phone-in this morning, Keir Starmer gave a roll call of those who attended the ‘Beergate’ event

Durham Police is currently looking into his beer and curry night with aides in April last year, which Sir Keir insists was essential work during the election campaign

‘I can describe them rather than name them… I’ve got a camera person, a videographer, a policy adviser, a comms adviser, someone from the leader’s office and me,’ Sir Keir said.

‘That makes six. I’ve then got two protection officers, police officers travelling with me. That team of eight goes pretty well everywhere I go.

‘At the office itself where we were having a curry there was obviously Angela Rayner and somebody from her office, because we were doing a joint event that night and in fact a joint event the next morning in Durham with one of our councillors there.

‘And (local MP) Mary Foy and some of her staff.’

Sir Keir said: ‘I am absolutely clear that there was no breach of the rules.

‘In my case, we were on the road with a team. We stopped for something to eat. There was no breach of the rules and I’ve made that clear over and over again.

But he added that if the police issue him with a fixed penalty notice, ‘I will do the right thing and I will step down because it’s very important, I think, for everybody to hear and to know that not all politicians are the same.

‘I think the Prime Minister has made a big mistake by trying to cling on in relation to the law-breaking that we know went on in Downing Street.

‘I’m different – and if that fixed penalty notice is issued then… I will step down from my posts because I do believe that democracy relies on integrity and honesty, and I hold others to high standards so I’m going to hold myself to those high standards.’

Stepping up his attack on Mr Johnson, Sir Keir said the public mood has changed with a ‘general sense that this man doesn’t really tell the truth’.

‘I think the public have made their mind up about this man. They don’t think he’s really telling the truth about many, many things – not just partygate – but just the general sense that this man doesn’t really tell the truth, (he) can’t be trusted,’ Sir Keir said.

The Labour leader also said: ‘We’ve got a prime minister trying to cling on to his job and most people would say ‘your job is to help me through the cost-of-living crisis and you’re not doing it because you’re distracted’.’

Sir Keir said that even if Mr Johnson wins, ‘I think history tells us that this is the beginning of the end.

‘If you look at the previous examples of no confidence votes, even when Conservative Prime Ministers survived those, he might survive it tonight, the damage is already done and usually they fall reasonably swiftly afterwards.’

The Labour leader was grilled about his own alleged lockdown-breaching furore as he gleefully seized on Boris Johnson’s confidence vote woe

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