Sir Keir Starmer called a ‘hypocrite’ for refusing to apologise over office drinking in lockdown

Sir Keir Starmer has refused to apologise for drinking beer with colleagues during lockdown, after he was accused of being a hypocrite.

The Labour leader has faced questions after a photograph emerged of him drinking in the constituency office of another MP in Durham while on the campaign trail in April 2021.

In the same month, two parties were held at Downing Street, which are now being investigated by an official civil service inquiry.

Downing Street has apologised to Buckingham Palace over the parties, which were held the night before the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral.

Boris Johnson has also apologised to the country for attending a garden party in May 2020, which is also under investigation, and said it should not have gone ahead.

The event took place shortly before Boris Johnson attended a May garden party in Downing Street, which is now being investigated through an official civil service inquiry.

The Prime Minister has apologised to the country and said the party should not have gone ahead.

But facing questions about his dinner and drinks with Labour staff in Mary Foy’s office the previous month, Sir Keir said it was a “million miles away” from the lockdown parties in Downing Street, and that staff had worked before and after the meal.

He said: “The picture of me was in a constituency office up in the North East, it was I think, three or four days before the May elections, so we were really busy.

“I was with my team going across the country from place to place.

“We were in the office, working in the office and we stopped for a takeaway, and then we carried on working and that is the long and the short of it.

“There was no breach of the rules. There was no party. And there was absolutely no comparison with the Prime Minister.”

He added: “I understand what’s going on here, which is exactly what happened with Owen Paterson.

“There comes a time when the Tories try to take everyone into the gutter with them. We did nothing wrong.”

But the LBC caller who asked about the incident dismissed Sir Keir’s response as “like listening to Boris Johnson without the harrumphing”, adding: “You should apologise and you are a hypocrite for not.”

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, has called for Sir Keir to apologise and accused him of “trying to weasel his way out of this”.

Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, has also called for an apology.

He told BBC Breakfast: “I think people expect, you know, very high standards from their leaders, and I think that’s only right.”

Michael Fabricant, another Tory MP, said Sir Keir’s event was more dangerous than the No10 garden party because it took place inside.

“'If the Prime Minister can apologise for a secure Downing Street garden event where nobody could have joined in from outside, it is a bit graceless of Keir Starmer not to profusely apologise for an event in an office that was not guarded and could have been a real Covid spreader,” he said.

“While what happened in Downing Street was not a good look, it was far safer from a Covid point of view than Keir Starmer’s party.”

The inquiry into parties in Whitehall during the pandemic, chaired by the former propriety and ethics chief Sue Gray, will not assess Sir Keir’s dinner since it applies only to government events.

‘He’s lost all authority’

The Labour leader was also asked whether he would prefer to fight a damaged Mr Johnson at the next election, rather than Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss – the frontrunners to succeed the Prime Minister.

Sir Keir said: “I will take on whoever is leading, I don’t really care.

“I think that it’s in the national interest that Boris Johnson goes now ... put party politics to one side, he’s lost all authority and that matters, whatever party you are in.

“We’re still in the pandemic and it’s very important that people behave in the way that we need them to behave, but he has lost the authority to ask people to do so.”

On other domestic and foreign issues, Sir Keir said the Prime Minister was “too weak to lead” and Britain was “paralysed” as a result.