Durham Police to Investigate Kier Starmer over breaking lockdown rules

Thank you WWM2

Excuse my language, I don't mean to offend. But.

Dear God, is that it? It's an agenda . Do people actually think that leaders of political parties just turn up in places and just say, ohh lets get a curry? They planned to get a curry delivered because they knew he'd be there and at the time no more than two households were allowed to gather in a restaurant. If I'd been working all day I'd want a takeaway too.

This is pathetic.

GrannyGravy13

The leaked memo if it’s legitimate certainly looks like an invite

What leaked memo?

Daily Mail owner desperate to keep his non dom status -which Starmer said will go once labour is in power.

That WWM2 and quite possibly Richard Holden still agitating. If there is a smoking gun it'll be the one he's shot himself in the foot with.

From a real paper with no axe to grind

Financial Times
@FinancialTimes
Starmer’s beer-drinking probe does not come close to ‘Partygate’

If Starmer plays this right Johnson could be wiped out.

DaisyAnne

If Starmer plays this right Johnson could be wiped out.

It’s not going to do Diane Abbott and her cause any favours either. Actually it could be seen as a blessing in disguise in a few weeks time. ?

From Adam Wagner - barrister

Adam Wagner
@AdamWagner1
·
29m
The idea that the police could criminally sanction the leader of the opposition for meeting, for an hour, with a local MP - and having dinner late in the evening - days before an election in that area is, to me, quite absurd. The law needs to be interpreted liberally...
.. as electoral politics are strongly protected by the rights to freedom of speech and assembly. COVID rules allowed for gatherings indoors if reasonably necessary for work and/or volunteering.

Any news about Sue Gray?

Come on whitewave, don’t be bringing the law into this. Don’t you know we should all be comparing this one incident with the special alcohol fridge, the suitcases used to bring alcohol into Downing Street so those poor exhausted staff mp’s and pm’s could have s beer just like keir starmer did

Thinking about the tweet from Wagner.

Yes I can see that the law surrounding the election process must be jealously guarded and strongly protected.

The police must be very very clear that they are not politicising the situation.

We would be entering very dodgy territory.

Whitewavemark2

Any news about Sue Gray?

As you of course know:
We'll have to wait for Sue Gray's enquiry
We'll have to wait for all of the facts
She's the only one with integrity and honesty, morality and decency,
The Spanish Inquisition couldn't follow in her tracks!
We'll have to wait for Sue Gray's enquiry
We'll have to wait for all of the facts
She's the only one who's immune to fear or favour may the Good Lord save her!
And till then, will everyone relax?!
(Thanks to the Marsh family).

Casdon

Whitewavemark2

Any news about Sue Gray?

As you of course know:
We'll have to wait for Sue Gray's enquiry
We'll have to wait for all of the facts
She's the only one with integrity and honesty, morality and decency,
The Spanish Inquisition couldn't follow in her tracks!
We'll have to wait for Sue Gray's enquiry
We'll have to wait for all of the facts
She's the only one who's immune to fear or favour may the Good Lord save her!
And till then, will everyone relax?!
(Thanks to the Marsh family).

That’s good?

Sue Gray. End of May.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/26/sue-gray-report-to-be-completed-by-end-of-may-at-earliest-sources-say

While Gray was muted in her criticism of specific senior government figures in the “update” she published in February, she is expected to be far more critical of specific individuals, including Boris Johnson, in her report.

A separate source said Gray was likely to be deeply critical of “how particular individuals ran No 10 and how that contributed to rule-breaking”.

They added she was likely to offer recommendations about how similar law-breaking, cultural issues and confused lines of accountability should be prevented or dealt with.

No 10 has committed to publishing the full version of Gray’s report.

I am very interested to hear what she has to say about Mark Sedwill and Helen MacNamara - both now gone to non-government jobs elsewhere.

Whitewavemark2

I think what has been omitted is also significant. But as far as I am concerned it simply confirms what I understood to have happened.

Is that it, Wwmk2?. The leaked memo?

I was expecting something quite different.

MaizieD

Whitewavemark2

I think what has been omitted is also significant. But as far as I am concerned it simply confirms what I understood to have happened.

Is that it, Wwmk2?. The leaked memo?

I was expecting something quite different.

Yes that is it!

They are desperate aren’t they? But honestly I don’t know why they are bothering, as I reckon Johnson is a goner - dead but won’t lie down as it were. The Tories just have to muster up a spine or two.

I wonder what the people of Durham think of the cost of this enforced re-opening of a case that the Durham police have already looked into. The Daily Telegraph is saying it will take six weeks to complete and how many officers, I wonder?

The DM reports it has a Labour Whistleblower who claims the curry/beer event was planned in advance. S/he claims no work was done after eating because everyone was p****d. The DM also quotes Dianne Abbot as a supporter of Starmer, who says he should resign if fiubd to have breached the regulations. Good old Abbott, always on hand to criticise anyone who isn’t Corbyn.
It’s all very unedifying. One thing the DM and Tory ministers screaming for Starmer to resign if given a fixed penalty notice is whataboutery. Johnson, Sunak?

The right wing must be so worried about the Sue Gray report.

We know it is damning, but how damning can probably be judged by the hysteria emanating from the DM.

It is totally false equivalence. Johnson has been found guilty and fined. There appears to have been one long jolly taking place throughout lockdown in No 10.

So far we know that an agenda outlining the working visit by Starmer to plan election strategy with labour workers, ended with a takeaway for about 15 people -

We also know that the police looked at this in January and dismissed the case as nothing to answer.

Those are the facts.

Lockdown rules in April 2021, allowed for people in the workplace to meet, and for food to be served as part of the working day.

It says nothing about alcohol.

That is it.

Hysterical reporting on ONE working supper.

My goodness the right have so much to worry about.

I consider this hysterical condemnation of Tory and Labour teams for consuming food and drink whilst continuing to work during covid verges on the absurd.
Rules were broken, thoughtlessly but not deliberately so, by people who continued to work during a pandemic, in common with medical, retail, educational, social and transport workers, whilst most of us were able to stay in relative safety behind our front doors.

I am one person of Durham and a Labour party member. I have no problem with the Durham police re opening the case. Not sure what that proves to be honest.

I'm not a Labour voter and never have been. If Starmer is forced to resign because of this I shall be livid. I don't know if he would be a good PM or not, but I know he's not a lying cheating charlatan out for his own ends. If Johnson survives, and Starmer doesn't, then it will be the final nail in politics for this country.

I had a brief look at the DM's article about this; it just oozes indignation and manufactured anger. The bit about how the hotel they were staying in was serving meals earlier so he could have eaten then is just laughable. Don't know about the rest of you but we had many takeaways this time last year, it was a way of not going to a restaurant.

The very idea that they planned to get a takeaway and so that was a party, so that was breaking the rules. I haven't even got the words. In my opinion, it just plays to the prejudices of a set of people who have no idea how the world works.

If Johnson survives, and Starmer doesn't, then it will be the final nail in politics for this country

That is what I’m so frightened of.

He appears to me to be a good man and compared to Johnson he is a saint. That doesnt stop me wishing he had been a bit more careful of the optics.

Starker won’t be made to resign, it’s not going to happen. The worst that will happen is that he might get a FPN. On the hand, he might not.