Keir Starmer and Angela Raynor have sent questionnaires to Durham police investigating whether they violated the laws on blocking beer and curry during last year’s election campaign.
The Labor leader, who has vowed to resign if fined for breaking the law, has denied any wrongdoing, saying he and his team worked on the night in question when they stopped eating.
A Labor spokesman confirmed that Starmer and Raynor had received questionnaires as part of the investigation. At the time, people were not allowed to communicate indoors except with their own household or support balloon, but there were exceptions for meetings needed for work.
The party says it can prove that the curry and beers shared between his team came as part of a long working day in preparation for the Hartlepool by-elections, which means it is allowed by Covid’s rules.
But Durham police have launched an investigation following a campaign by right-wing newspapers and calls from Tory MPs to look into the Durham Miners Hall incident on April 30, 2021.
As Boris Johnson refused to resign after being fined by Metro police, Starmer took a different course, promising to step down if Durham’s forces found wrongdoing. Starmer said this month that he was determined to prove that there were “different principles of the prime minister” who had already received notice of a fixed sanction for violating the Downing Street blockade rules.
He said he was confident he had not broken the rules, but would resign if fined, saying: “The British public deserves politicians who think the rules apply to them.”
Detectives are considering interviewing the Labor leader face to face, and uncertainty over Starmer’s continued leadership in the party will continue for weeks, according to the Guardian.
In addition to the Labor leader and his deputy, questionnaires were sent to other Labor activists whom police believe were present at a gathering at the Durham constituency office.
The questionnaires are legal documents. After Starmer and Raynor complete them and return them to the police, officers will compare their answers with other information from other sources.
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Police will assess the veracity of their answers and whether the fine threshold is met for Starmer or Rayner.
The investigation is expected to be completed by the end of June or the beginning of July.
Starmer is said to be confident he will not be fined for evidence that eating at home is part of his workday. There is also the possibility that Starmer and Raynor may be criticized by the police, but not fined, an approach Durham’s forces took after investigating alleged violations of the blockade by Dominic Cummings, then a senior aide to the prime minister.
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