Keir Starmer Pledges to Quit if Fined By Police Over Beergate

Keir Starmer has gambled his career on being cleared over Beergate by making an extraordinary vow to quit if he is fined by police – with Angela Rayner also promising to do the same. MailOnline has the story.

The Labour leader gave a statement after spending hours hunkered down with aides trying to decide how to handle the mounting crisis over the boozy curry event in April last year.

He insisted he is “absolutely clear” no rules were broken and he believes in “honour and integrity” – saying he is “very different” from Boris Johnson. 

Sir Keir said he had self-isolated six times, and obeyed the rules when his father-in-law was ill, suggesting even his opponents did not really believe he would have breached them in Durham. 

“If the police decide to issue me with a FPN I would of course do the right thing and step down,’ he said – although pushed by journalists he declined to say what he would do if police merely rebuke him publicly. 

Angela Rayner echoed his stance, saying in a statement: “If I were issued with a fine, I would do the decent thing and step down.”

The intervention – which raised the prospect of Labour being left without either of its two top politicians – came after a day of building tension, which saw Sir Keir cancel a think-tank event where he would have been grilled by journalists and ignored questions as he left his London home this morning.

He has agreed with senior figures urging him to get on the front foot by committing to resign should Durham Police find he broke Covid rules.

The strategy is high-risk but could potentially leave Sir Keir in a strong position if police do not issue a penalty – while allies suspect he would need to go anyway were he to receive a fine. It also means he will have more leverage in clashes with Mr. Johnson after the Queen’s Speech tomorrow.

He must be hoping the officer in charge of the case isn’t a Tory.

Worth reading in full.

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Londo Mollari
3 years ago

It’s the decent thing to do.

Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago

Why can’t he just quit for being a pointless ditherer who doesn’t know what a woman is?

No-one important
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

Oh, come now – he has apparently fathered two children so he must once have had an inkling 🙂

RedhotScot
3 years ago

So did Michelle Obama, but no one ever saw her pregnant.

Vaxtastic
3 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

😉

FOtmC7uWYAcQkFC-768x768.jpg
JohnMcCarthy
JohnMcCarthy
3 years ago

I haven’t inkled in ages. 😪

Gefion
Gefion
3 years ago
Reply to  JohnMcCarthy

I don’t suppose you managed to get a doctor’s appointment to find out why either…

Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  JohnMcCarthy

TMI

David Beaton
David Beaton
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

Kneeler Starmer – bowing down to BLM- is totally unfit for the role he has been shoe-horned into and has nothing to offer either Labour voters or the country – had he any self-awareness, that should be a sufficient cue for him to resign.

If it were not for the unmitigated disaster of Ed Miliband, he would be the worst “Labour Leader” on record. Corbyn actually had real opinions and so much more integrity

He has totally abdicated any responsibility to lead any party called the ‘Labour’ party in such testing times for ordinary people and appears to occupy a total political vacuum, Johnson having stolen most of his oxygen.

He is the prime example of the utter pointlessness of contemporary politicians and frankly whatever he does or doesn’t do ought to be a matter of total national indifference.

Obviously, on the quiet, he has been told he will not face a fine.

MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

‘Kneeler Starmer – bowing down to BLM-‘

I bet it gets ugly fast when the gay/trans crowd turn up as his office, bending over, kneeling down, he has to do it all.

CynicalRealist
3 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Agree with most of that, but not the bit re Milliband – he may not have been the greatest leader, but he was still better than Starmer!

RedhotScot
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

So are you, but you’re still around.

For a fist full of roubles
Reply to  Backlash

Says the person who sets the benchmark for pathetic.

psychedelia smith
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

Currently a combined total of 161 people think you’re extremely confused.

Moist Von Lipwig
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

Keir Starmer cannot or will not say what a woman is.

tree
3 years ago

Will the PM make a similar honourable pledge?

stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

Honourable is the last word that comes to mind when assessing Starmer’s play.

All he is doing is reminding us all what a circus, freak show politics really is.

They’ll resign over the little stuff like a beer during lockdown. But never the big stuff, like getting found out that they started a war in Iraq under false pretences.

Honourable. What a joke.

Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

No. Fuck off

chris-ds
chris-ds
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

Why use three words when 2 would have sufficed?

stanley_plank
stanley_plank
3 years ago

He knows full well they won’t fine him, otherwise he wouldn’t have said it. The Met are a branch of the Labour party anyway.

realarthurdent
3 years ago
Reply to  stanley_plank

Well it’s Durham Police in this instance but your point is still valid.

Captain Black
Captain Black
3 years ago
Reply to  stanley_plank

And the Durham Police and Crime Commissioner is Joy Allen, a Labour politician.

David Beaton
David Beaton
3 years ago
Reply to  Captain Black

First point of call for a worried Starmer then?

tree
3 years ago
Reply to  stanley_plank

Are you aware what the Met is?

Emerald Fox
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

Where Cressida Dick ‘Met’ her partner Helen Ball?

tree
3 years ago

This could be a political masterstroke.

Assuming no FPN, then Boris either goes or has to admit he is much less honourable.

stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

Which ever way it goes it’s a body blow to Johnson. For Labour it’s either a win or a big win.

janvanruth
janvanruth
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

dream on…

Hopeless - "TN,BN"
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

Not a lot in it, really. Both are lower than a snake’s belly, but whilst Johnson is a cad and a bounder, Starmer is a sanctimonious “whited sepulchre” legal shyster.

tree
3 years ago

No BJ is a lying buffoon, with nothing between his ears.

stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

Backlash: Why can’t he just quit for being a pointless, dithering cunt who doesn’t know what a woman is?

tree: Your post is quite pathetic.

2 minutes later:

tree: BJ is a lying buffoon, with nothing between his ears

The meds, tree, the meds.

RedhotScot
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

🤣

Hopeless - "TN,BN"
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

Then I presume that the lying, evasion and prevarication from Starmer in this affair alone is considered by you to be the actions of a truthful, honest man? The difference between the two is that Johnson is a buffoon, but the other lacks even that, as a dictatorial stuffed shirt. I don’t think Johnson has lied about his origins and antecedents as much as The People’s Starmer.

tree
3 years ago

What “lying, evasion and prevarication”?

Hopeless - "TN,BN"
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

That which is reported in most informed sources. I wouldn’t know about the BBC, as I shun it.

RedhotScot
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

🤣

Anonymous
Anonymous
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

I agree with tree. Johnson will receive much louder calls for his resignation if Starmer resigned. It’s quite torturous watching people try to make out that the former is somehow morally superior to the latter – because he’s a buffoon?! He’s not even that – it’s all a show and it’s sad to see that people are taken in by it.
Ooh, look at my waltzing into the fray! 😊

RedhotScot
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

We agree on something then.

iane
iane
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

And the difference with Kneeler is … ???

rtj1211
rtj1211
3 years ago
Reply to  iane

He’s a c***sucking c**t, whereas Johnson is a shameless one?

realarthurdent
3 years ago

So in other words he’s got the nod from his chums at Durham Police that he won’t be fined and therefore feels confident in announcing he’ll resign in the event of something that he knows won’t happen.

How very predictable.

tree
3 years ago
Reply to  realarthurdent

Yet no-one predicted it.

Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  realarthurdent

Probably ordered them a bag of curry and a few cans. Job done

Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  realarthurdent

But creates a nice sense of jeopardy and political tension while we wait for the verdict.

It is all pure theatre – nothing more than that – something for the red-tops to shout about to distract from the things which are really happening – like people in the UK who cannot afford to heat their homes or feed their families.

RedhotScot
3 years ago
Reply to  Milo

Fire service now reporting a surge in domestic fires with people burning what they can find instead of using gas to heat their homes.

Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Yes – a guy almost set his house alight burning timber to try to heat it.

Reminds me of the hard times in Dublin back in the noughties after the banking crash when people pulled their floorboards up to burn them in the fireplace. Seriously.

Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  Milo

False economy, the price of timber is eye-watering

Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

only if you plan to replace it

Hopeless - "TN,BN"
3 years ago
Reply to  Milo

When I was a student in the 60’s, I lived on £12 a month and whatever I could earn working nights in a chocolate factory, among other places. My residence was two rooms over an archway, with a cold water sink and a privy in the garden. It had a fireplace, and winter 68-69, I burnt a lot of furniture, including the stool with seagrass top that I made at school. Having spent years in boarding schools, privations were expected, but I had friends, beer, music and other compensation. I also had the dread flu of that season.

sophie123
3 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Really? It’s pretty warm right now. People could just put a jumper on. I’m finding this hard to believe

Kymtr17
Kymtr17
3 years ago
Reply to  sophie123

Those of us who can knit and crochet will be in demand …

Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  sophie123

That might be fine for younger generations, but for elderly not being able to heat their homes can be life endangering – if they cannot maintain core body temp their blood vessels constrict in effort to preserve heat and that impacts circulation etc ergo risk of strike and heart disease etc.

ImpObs
3 years ago

He’s obviously had the nod via the left-handed bricklayers secret handshake club.

No career trougher would risk it on luck alone.

stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  ImpObs

My thoughts exactly.
He’s taking one for the team and will be rewarded down the line or given a position of authority in the shadows.

tree
3 years ago
Reply to  ImpObs

Hmm.

Most would consider that “club” to be somewhat right-wing.

Are you confused?

David Beaton
David Beaton
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

No you are….plenty of “top drawer” Leftists in the Masons.

We ar talking “Up North ” y’know.

tree
3 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Yep everyone in the north is left wing… I forgot.

ImpObs
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

Starmer is Trilateral Commission, about as facist as you can get without a uniform, a chest full of fake medals, and a stright arm salute, don’t let his party colours and platitudes confuse you.

Bobby Lobster
Bobby Lobster
3 years ago

He is just putting pressure on the police to back down.

Londo Mollari
3 years ago
Reply to  Bobby Lobster

Yes – the police don’t want to be responsible for a political crisis.

Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

how would it be a political crisis?

RedhotScot
3 years ago
Reply to  Milo

If Starmer is fined, then Raynor will be fined, and both will have to resign. Whilst that’s a celebration for most, it’s a political crisis for the left.

Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Yes – for the left, but not for the UK as a whole, if confined to a single party it hardly constitutes a political crisis for the whole of the UK

CreweNantwich
CreweNantwich
3 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

It could be a political opportunity, but I am without a viable alternative. given this Thatcherite conservative will not vote for this current socialist, totalitarian excuse of a Conservative Party, so I might as well vote for the madhouse.

rtj1211
rtj1211
3 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Do you think that 40 million out of the 70 odd million in the UK give a flying fart about a political crisis for the left?

rtj1211
rtj1211
3 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

Starmer resigning would just make 10 million have a few beers in celebration and then life would go on as before.

No crisis whatsoever outside of the pointless Westminster village and its media sycophants.

happychappy
3 years ago

The person I am most angry with in this whole sorry saga is myself, for going along with the hysterical nonsense and obediently cancelling my Christmas plans in line with Govt guidance in the face of this deadly, killer virus. Seeing how many politicians were completely unconcerned about getting together proves it was all hysterical bollocks. It won’t happen again.

Dave Bollocks
3 years ago
Reply to  happychappy

Yep, next time just call it a ‘work event’.

stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  happychappy

You could have just taken stock of the real world, seen that people weren’t actually dropping like flies as they would during a real pandemic and realised it was all a bunch of BS.

Just remember for next time:

  • Turn the TV off, don’t read any corporate media.
  • Look out into the real world and suss out what is really happening that way.

I know that this comes off as a bit dickish, but I’m really just making the point that if we were all a bit less media conditioned and more plugged into the real, physical world and trusted our own eyes a bit more, we’d all be so much better off.

CynicalRealist
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

I think it’s important to read the corporate media sometimes – it’s useful to be aware of what lies and bullshit they are currently pushing!

tree
3 years ago
Reply to  happychappy

So do you think BJ should resign?

stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

For what, for breaking the rules that half the country (at the very least) also broke?

Lockdown rules were really an IQ test. The more you broke them, the higher your IQ.

tree
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

So you must think Starmer should also stay put, if fined.

ImpObs
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

stop telling people what they think, or they’ll have you pegged as a narcissist..

oh wait…

tree
3 years ago
Reply to  ImpObs

So what should Starmer do, in your opinion?

ImpObs
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

I don’t care, I’m not a billionaire, so my opinion is worth as much as my vote in these things, nothing.

RedhotScot
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

Resign, like Boris also should.

splinter
3 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Correct!

Oddly there is support for this view (thumbs).

Yet

There is also lots of support for no-one resigning.

Since the majority on here have the same opinion, what’s going on.

stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

I honestly couldn’t care less.

splinter
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

Yet you are commenting on a story on the subject. Why?

Moist Von Lipwig
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

Kim Jong Johnson imposed the rules, of course he should be punished for breaking them but, more importantly, he is evil fir making the rules in the first place.

HelenaHancart
HelenaHancart
3 years ago
Reply to  happychappy

I say good on you for waking up, and seeing the truth. Many know there is something wrong, that none of it adds up but it’s too painful for them to acknowledge it, especially after all this time, so it’s much easier to be angry, blame people like us, and call it a conspiracy theory! It takes a lot courage to take a long, cold look at yourself and the part you probably unwittingly played. Welcome to the other side! Once you awake you don’t go back to sheep!

Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  happychappy

One of many who got played.

RedhotScot
3 years ago
Reply to  Milo

No shame in it. I mean the government only spent £450Bn convincing people.

Emerald Fox
3 years ago

“Keir Starmer has gambled his career”

So he’ll resign from the Labour Party AND quit being a solicitor/lawyer?

“Labour’s line is, and always has been, that after a day campaigning, and an evening working in the office on campaign matters, Starmer had a drink while sharing a takeaway meal with party colleagues and that, although England was in lockdown, indoor gatherings were allowed for “work purposes” and that eating and drinking like this was allowed if “reasonably necessary for work”.”

Is it ‘work’, though, trying to make yourself Prime Minister?

sophie123
3 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

Well there’s a point. Who pays them to campaign?

rtj1211
rtj1211
3 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

It’s usually prostitution….

Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
3 years ago

That such a montrosity could’ve risen to prominence in the first place should’ve been the issue. I don’t see any replacement being any better. And I set the bar very low. It is utterly disgusting what they have become. When you’re sitting at home cold and shcvering and hungry I don’t imagine that you will care much for the political class.

Just Passing Through
3 years ago

Both probably already know in advance that they won’t be fined.

This is all political theatre.

tree
3 years ago

And somewhat clever.

Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
3 years ago

Her has always looked like he is being drilled up the arse and is speaking on the pain of death. Whilst ruling over some of the most unjust rulings in British history. I have no sympathy for the man. And I suspect that this sentiment will be shared when the truth is widely shared. There are enemies and there are enemies.

tree
3 years ago
Reply to  Jabby Mcstiff

Which rulings are you speaking of?

ImpObs
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

I can think of a couple off the top of my head…

Keir Starmer as head of the CPS was ultimately responsible for the decision not to bring charges against the serial paedophile Jimmy Savile.

Ian Tomlinsons family could probably think of another one, specially as the ONLY pathologist to say “natural causes” (against his peers findings) was suspended for his unorhtodox methods during autopsies, Starmer gave plod a pass AFTER that.

splinter
3 years ago
Reply to  ImpObs

Rulings are made my the judiciary.

MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago

Starmer is a lying globalist weasel just like Boris as such –

Starmer in a couple of months – ‘I wasn’t fined. I was issued a fixed penalty which I paid, I was never found guilty by a court and fined’

David Beaton
David Beaton
3 years ago

He must have been ringing round to make sure he will not be. Any Trilateral Brothers on the watch?

MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago

Does anyone remember when Labour represented the indigenous working class?
These days all they do is push anti Angloism whilst promoting every other race.
They do all they can to wreck the traditional family whilst pushing every form of sexual degeneracy.
They promote authoritarian globalist government whilst destroying national democracy.
They are so bad they could be the Tories.

tree
3 years ago
Reply to  MrTea

You seem to need a party somewhat to the right of the Tories.

ImpObs
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

so center left then

MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

Left v right is froth.

I need a party that respects the nation and the rights of the nationals within it, a core right being not be replaced by immigrants.

splinter
3 years ago
Reply to  MrTea

That’s far right for you then.

RedhotScot
3 years ago
Reply to  tree

Your stock comment. Nothing original?

rtj1211
rtj1211
3 years ago
Reply to  MrTea

You know, I think that promoting sexual degeneracy might be the best way to get the young to be respectful and monogamous. After all, promoting monogamy seemed to usher in the ‘sexual revolution’….

Mr Taxpayer
Mr Taxpayer
3 years ago
Reply to  MrTea

The problem is that most of tge indigenous working class still labour under the belief that Labour represents them

Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
3 years ago

The trilateral arrangement is an interesting one given that Japan suffered major economic woes in the 1980s from which it has never recovered. And you can’t put that down to the people, These guys commit suicide if they don’t get top scores on tests. They are intelligent and principled and understand that the two things are intimately entwined. The idea of the trilateral arrangement is a ruse in itself. If it was a genuine trilateral arrangement then some good might’ve come of it.

Cecil B
Cecil B
3 years ago

The Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham is a Labour Party politician

Lunk head knows they will find nothing

smithey
3 years ago

In 2020 and 2021 Starmer was running around like a headless chicken demanding harder, earlier, longer lockdowns and intimating that if anyone met up with anyone else at a social occasion then it was certain they and granny would die the most horrendous Covid death as yet known to man. It stands to reason therefore based on what he was saying that he should be charged with attempted murder.

RedhotScot
3 years ago
Reply to  smithey

At the very least convicted of congenital stupidity whilst in office.

rtj1211
rtj1211
3 years ago
Reply to  smithey

I don’t think he attempted it, I think he achieved it several thousand times.

dearieme
dearieme
3 years ago

He’s had an inside tip that he’ll be OK. County Durham – Old Labour territory with a history of corruption. It would be droll if he’d said “Clear me but not Angela.” But he’s a shyster by trade so that would presumably be par for the course.

RedhotScot
3 years ago
Reply to  dearieme

Can’t possibly have two labour politicians facing resignation, so neither will be fined.

rtj1211
rtj1211
3 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Why not have 22 facing resignation? If you include the Mayor of London….

sophie123
3 years ago
Reply to  dearieme

She should be fined for her fringe. Criminal.

factsnotfiction
3 years ago

If Starmer receives a fine then resigns, would this not leave Boris in a moral predicament?

RedhotScot
3 years ago

Morality has yet to trouble Boris.

rtj1211
rtj1211
3 years ago

Just ask him about the morality of his approach to Julian Assange….that has about as much morality as paedophilia.

A passerby
A passerby
3 years ago

Keir Starmer Pledges to Quit if Fined By Police Over Beergate.

Perhaps I’m over dramatising.

With a career in the legal profession I think he must know whichever way it goes, he loses.

Dodgy Geezer
Dodgy Geezer
3 years ago

He used to be DPP. If anyone has got an inside track into who is going to be charged it will be him and his ec-mates there….

Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  Dodgy Geezer

yep – he has deffo put feelers out – indirectly of course – nothing that can be traced back to him, can’t be too careful and all that.

Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
3 years ago

He really isn’t important his trilateral connections don’t mean a great deal. It does mean that there is a complete vacuum where the Labour party used to be. As to what comes next I fear that it will not be conducted in such a civilised way. Do it while you can, attempt to create some sense of unity in the country because we will need that when things become nasty

Smelly Melly
3 years ago

He won’t get fined so a non story. Just more BS for the MSM to froth about to the plebs.

Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
3 years ago

It won’t be suit a versus suit b in a few weeks time. It will be how the hell do I stay alive for the next two weeks. Believe me the whole political class will seem like a distant memory.

Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
3 years ago

Either you put it together now and connect with those around you or you don’t. I’m just saying that the cost of remaining unconnected is growing.

Milo
Milo
3 years ago

Such a shame.

his could have made for an interesting discussion.

However I had to abandon it after it had been hi-jacked by Tree – who isn’t interested in any kind of real consideration of the issues; s/he just wants to chip away at the debate to restore ‘the narrative’. Every time.

RedhotScot
3 years ago
Reply to  Milo

I wouldn’t worry about it. Everyone just laughs at tree. He’s a plank, well, almost…….

splinter
3 years ago
Reply to  Milo

Not sure I understand your objection to Tree’s original comment.

Is it not the case that this could be a really clever move by Starmer?
The fact that most on here seem to hate him isn’t a factor.

For a fist full of roubles

I am interested to know why the fixed penalty notice is the decider. It is quite possible to be adjudged to have broken the rules but to waive the penalty (I suspect Starmer has an inside line on the Durham plod deciding retrospective fines are inappropriate.
Given that Starmer is a legal man you would think guilt was an important factor and that the penalty is secondary, after all in a court the jury decides on guilt or innocence but the judge applies the penalty.

Emerald Fox
3 years ago

If the Police don’t give Starmer a fine, the Common Law Constables of the Guardians300 can give him one.
Then the Alpha Male Assemble can kick his pizza box in.

Vaxtastic
3 years ago

😉

PRI_158211687-1642336750.5917.jpg
sophie123
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

😂

civilliberties
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

doesn’t he look a strong and capable leader 🤣

splinter
3 years ago
Reply to  civilliberties

You stick with the Buffoon.

Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  civilliberties

No!!!! and it looks like someone has sprayed a can of hairspray over that perfectly arranged hairdo to keep it in place after the plastic protect no one from nothing visor was pulled over his face.

Utterly pathetic.

Nearhorburian
Nearhorburian
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

What a mong.