What Durham police’s ‘beergate’ investigation means for Starmer

It’s Boris Johnson’s lucky day. Keir Starmer had hoped to spend Friday talking up Labour’s results in the local election – with a particular focus on the party’s successes over the London Tories in Wandsworth, Barnet and Westminster. Instead, the Labour leader and his team will spend the afternoon talking about ‘beergate’ after the Telegraph broke the news that Durham Police will investigate the alleged lockdown breach.

This all relates to an event in April last year when Starmer was photographed drinking beer with colleagues in Durham at a ‘work event’ involving a takeaway curry. When evidence of the event first emerged earlier this year, it gained little traction. But ever since Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak were fined for attending an event with birthday cake in between work meetings, the Tories have been calling for the case to be re-examined (after police found there had been no wrongdoing earlier this year). These efforts have been led by Richard Holden, the MP for North West Durham and a former political adviser.

Now Tory MPs have had their wish granted. The case will be re-examined on the grounds of new evidence coming to light – to agree to a retro-investigation is rare for the police. This is significant for a number of reasons. Already beergate was causing Starmer stress – in the interviews leading up to polling day it came up repeatedly, much to the Labour leader’s frustration. Starmer dismissed the story as ‘mudslinging’ by the Conservatives. Yet the fact that the police are willing to look into it means this defence will no longer wash. 

The view among the bulk of Tories is that beergate is not on the same level of seriousness as some of the alleged Downing Street events, such as drinks in the No. 10 flat or the infamous BYOB garden party. However, it is on a similar level to the cake incident – which is so far the only event that Johnson has received a fine over. Tory MPs believe Starmer overplayed his hand by calling for both Johnson and Sunak to resign over the cake event – and is now paying the price. 

So, what happens next? It’s worth noting that a fine is still viewed as unlikely for Starmer given Durham Constabulary has insisted it does not issue fines retrospectively. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Were Starmer to receive a fine he would be in a very tight spot. According to his own position on Covid breaches, he ought to resign. So he would either have to go or change his position on lockdown breaches.

Even if it doesn’t come to a fine, this is very unhelpful for the Labour leader. First off, Starmer did actually call for Johnson to resign after the police investigation into partygate was announced – so by that logic it would be fair to ask whether Starmer will resign. Presuming that’s a no, it is now very difficult for him to go on the attack over partygate – something he has done repeatedly. The investigation announcement will also distract attention away from the local election results. Just as the Tories start to face heavy losses in the south, the attention is on Starmer – and it’s not for the reasons he would like.