Kier Starmer & voice coach during tier 4 lockdown

Mt61

I didn’t hear that about Sunak, only BJ, I would say beer & curry sounds worse than a nice slice of birthday cake.
Blinking hypocrisy!

Why is curry worse than cake? That's like saying that carrots are essential items in a supermarket trolley but avocados are not. If anything, curry is a meal and birthday cake a celebratory snack, so less 'essential'.

Isn't it the reason for the meeting that makes the difference? A work meeting is one thing (whether that is a full day with a break for food or in-house coaching) - an after-work party is another, surely?

escaped

I don't get why Leonie and Keir weren't at home late on Christmas Eve with their respective families, nevermind whether anyone is Jewish, atheist or whatever. When there's an excited 10 year old child marooned at home, (due to covid restrictions), with their mother, you'd think dad, Starmer, might want to be around? And lonely Leonie sat on a train back to Brighton?
What a sad bunch! 😥

Yes but he neeeeded it so lockdown didn’t count for him.

Really, M61?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozCVHP1WIeM&t=14s

"as long as we're not streaming it, we're not breaking the rules"

I don't get why Leonie and Keir weren't at home late on Christmas Eve with their respective families, nevermind whether anyone is Jewish, atheist or whatever. When there's an excited 10 year old child marooned at home, (due to covid restrictions), with their mother, you'd think dad, Starmer, might want to be around? And lonely Leonie sat on a train back to Brighton?
What a sad bunch! 😥

Iam64

It’s outside the three year limit for such investigations, the Met say.
It’s a curiosity that something so unimportant in the scale of problems our country faces that this hit the headlines
We must all remember the support expressed for Johnson despite the drunken ship he ran during those dark days

Hardly a drunken ship 🙄

Leonie is married to Defence Barrister Anthony Burton.. It's odd that no-one thought they were disobeying rules.. I have been backing Keir Starmer up until now but I really don't like this cronyism..

Yes, he needs to apologise (he has lied to all of us by saying the woman was a key worker) and to show some humility. I won’t be holding my breath though.

Barleyfields

Starmer wouldn’t be prosecuted, he would be given a fine as Johnson etc were. I too am aggrieved at being deprived of a family Christmas (though Rosie’s circumstances were far more sad), and after Starmer’s promises of change it’s clear that he is as much a liar as Johnson was. It may not be a huge issue in the scheme of things, but it’s a matter of considerable significance to me that despite his hounding of Johnson about the goings-on at No 10, he was apparently committing exactly the same offence. He is a liar and a hypocrite, a man without integrity.

Sadly that’s what I’ve come round to thinking, what with this matter and all the clothes and specs freebies, he isn’t the man I thought he was.
So he gets away with it as it’s 3years ago, after all the fuss he made about Johnson!
He needs to apologise to the nation at the very least.

Starmer just sounds so adenoidal. And wooden.
I know he can’t help it but he’s not inspiring in the least.

Starmer wouldn’t be prosecuted, he would be given a fine as Johnson etc were. I too am aggrieved at being deprived of a family Christmas (though Rosie’s circumstances were far more sad), and after Starmer’s promises of change it’s clear that he is as much a liar as Johnson was. It may not be a huge issue in the scheme of things, but it’s a matter of considerable significance to me that despite his hounding of Johnson about the goings-on at No 10, he was apparently committing exactly the same offence. He is a liar and a hypocrite, a man without integrity.

Should ask for a refund then!
Still, can we believe it? I just don't know what to believe anymore.

I too was affected by Tier 4 restrictions but I think meeting a voice coach in person (if true - we'll never know if the police aren't investigating) is far less contemptible than having parties, allowing others to have parties and lying to Parliament. And I agree with those who have said that the voice coach didn't help him much, unfortunately. BJ could have done with one too. All that stuttering - "Er, er, er, er..." etc before answering a question got very annoying.

On what we see so far, I’m still relieved Labour won the election
I stuck to the guidelines as did all my friends and family

Iam64

It’s outside the three year limit for such investigations, the Met say.
It’s a curiosity that something so unimportant in the scale of problems our country faces that this hit the headlines
We must all remember the support expressed for Johnson despite the drunken ship he ran during those dark days

I agree it's less important in the hierarchy of problems we face, but I'm still entitled to feel aggrieved as I was directly affected by the tier 4 restrictions at that time. I never supported Johnson, even before all his transgressions became known. I don't want Starmer prosecuted but I would like some humility, acknowledgement that it wasn't his finest decision, and an apology, instead of the total denial of any error. Even his office has admitted that describing his voice coach as a key worker was wrong.
We were told that labour would be the antithesis of the Conservatives, so any deviance, real or perceived, from the absolute straight and narrow will get picked up and reported. Just saying the Conservatives were worse doesn't really cut it.

I think that time limit is a matter of Met policy rather than law.

escaped

Is it because the time is considered too long past?

No.
On paper, timing counts, but we have already seen the flood of ^well the tories/Boris etc did it and that’s in the past too.

It’s outside the three year limit for such investigations, the Met say.
It’s a curiosity that something so unimportant in the scale of problems our country faces that this hit the headlines
We must all remember the support expressed for Johnson despite the drunken ship he ran during those dark days

Is it because the time is considered too long past?

I don’t understand why the Met can’t investigate either. Has anyone heard them give a reason for that? They certainly investigated other suspected breaches of the lockdown rules, and dished out fines.

I didn’t hear that about Sunak, only BJ, I would say beer & curry sounds worse than a nice slice of birthday cake.
Blinking hypocrisy!

Barleyfields

It would not have been necessary to meet up. This lady’s website says she can deliver courses by video conferencing. The country didn’t stop working during lockdown. People worked from home using Zoom for meetings and they still do. Doctors rely on telephone consultations. He is indeed wriggling.

Of course he is.
And I don’t see why the police won’t investigate this properly either, they were willing to go after Sunak for eating a slice of cake in the Number Ten Cabinet Office after all.

A little like us then Politicsnerd

Rosie51

I voted Labour to get Starmer elected as PM. But I'm very disappointed that he accepts no responsibility for, if not actually breaking lockdown rules (which I'd dispute), but definitely breaching the spirit of them. He knew as well as I did that Londoners in tier 4 were compelled to abandon any planned contact with family members at extremely short notice, even though the preparations etc were already in place and excitement had commenced. We were told our sacrifice was essential for the good of the country. He however couldn't sacrifice an in person consult with his voice trainer? That was absolutely imperative, far more important to bring someone from tier 3 into and out of tier 4 for that, than for tier 4 family to see other family members in tier 4. I sacrificed the last Christmas with a relative that died a few days into the New Year. I can't ever get that back. The least he could do is to apologise for a massive error of judgement even if he's too craven to admit guilt. The Met have said any transgression is outside their remit, no prosecution can be made. I've lost a huge amount of respect and will find it very hard to believe him going forward. I thought better of him, I was wrong. For those around the country that enjoyed their permitted Christmas gatherings, perhaps try and put yourselves in the shoes of others in areas of the country who had the rug pulled from under them.

Well put Rosie51. Just how I feel.

It would not have been necessary to meet up. This lady’s website says she can deliver courses by video conferencing. The country didn’t stop working during lockdown. People worked from home using Zoom for meetings and they still do. Doctors rely on telephone consultations. He is indeed wriggling.

Good post Rosie51

He is trying to wriggle instead of being honest and straightforward. He's saying that, as he had to give a press conference, he had to gather a team of advisers.
Political advisers, yes, using Zoom as the rest of us had to do during lockdowns, but surely a personal visit from a voice coach is not urgent