Distraction tactics by the Tories .
Interesting article by Tom Harris ex Labour MP:
The irony is shattering. It was Starmer who demanded more, tougher and longer Covid restrictions at every opportunity during the pandemic. It was Starmer who presented himself as the saintly alternative to Johnson. Yet it was also Starmer who, even as he threw wild accusations across the Commons chamber, appears to have known that he had enjoyed his own late-night drinks party with colleagues.
…
On top of this, a week before the local elections, Starmer himself bizarrely and repeatedly refused to confirm whether the police had contacted him to discuss the allegations. Why obfuscate if they hadn’t been in touch? Why bother dissembling if they had?
His characteristic refusal to offer a straight answer – and yesterday’s revelation that he will now be investigated by police – will add to voters’ suspicions that Starmer is not the straight-talking politician he claims to be.
As a result, he could soon find himself under siege from both the Left and the moderates in Labour.
He already stands accused by the hard-Left of reneging on Corbynite campaign promises he made when he stood as leader. They will now be out for his blood. And the shadow of his predecessor has long left a question mark over his head for many centrists. Those who didn’t trust Jeremy Corbyn find it difficult to trust a man who tried his utmost to make Corbyn prime minister not once but twice.
…
There was already that issue of trust. After resigning from the front bench in protest at Corbyn’s leadership in 2016, and voting against him in a confidence vote, Starmer rejoined his shadow cabinet and campaigned to make him PM. Knowing his tolerance of anti-Semitism, which made life impossible for Jewish MPs and supporters; knowing that he supported the dismantling of Nato; yet Starmer still asked the country to put its trust in Corbyn as prime minister.
Then he demanded Johnson’s resignation over Downing Street parties, while failing to come clean about his own.
Voters expected better than this from Starmer. Today they will be disappointed that they didn’t know these latest revelations on Beergate before they cast their votes.
1 Like
Groan …
Is calling out the hypocrisy of the Labour Party classed as distraction tactics these days?
Of course, the endless talking about Partygate and the issue with Angela Rayner’s growler just before the local council elections isn’t a distraction, is it?
1 Like
You may think it’s interesting - but, AFAIK, Harris is now a rabid Tory so I find him boring … 
You folks keep arguing about a political divide that existed years ago, the political golden years. 
Of course, someone did more than have a beer during lockdown and Durham Constabulary investigated that incident, too, and found no law had been broken by the alleged perpetrator:
Police have decided to take no action against Dominic Cummings for breaching lockdown, after studying a 255-page dossier making the legal case for prosecution over his trip from London to Durham during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
The dossier stated that the legal test had been met for prosecution over the trip by Mr Cummings and his journalist wife Mary Wakefield to his parents’ home last March, at a time when both believed themselves to be carrying coronavirus, and a later trip to beauty spot Barnard Castle, which Mr Cummings said was undertaken to test his eyesight before the journey back to London.
Will that case, too, be revisited … 
Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he … 
1 Like
No mileage in that now.
The Tory gameplan may actually be to kick the Starmer BeerGate resolution into the long grass. Far more damage will be done to Starmer with BeerGate hanging around causing a bad smell than a resolution.
Consider this, if the findings are that Starmer has done no wrong then that’s not good for the Tories. If the findings go the other way then Starmer would likely resign and that would light a huge moral bonfire under Johnson and Sunak so conclusion of any kind is bad for the Tories. Keeping no conclusion as the result however allows the disinformation mill to do great damage and is bang on target from a Tory perspective.
2 Likes
News breaking that Starmer organised a Christmas in-person party for 40 senior Labour MP’s during the time where London was in tier 3.
Labour are over, there’s no coming back for them after this.
Thank god.
You never know. If you can manage it, I don’t see why the Labour Party can’t. Although I suppose you have the advantage of not needing to be voted for. 
I’m not a politician, I don’t depend on votes.
of course the big difference between Johnsons cake and Starmers curry is that Johnson didn’t have a choice, he was ambushed with his cake, where Starmer planned all of his rule breaking and deliberately arranged his lockdown, rule breaking, party(s).
Goodbye labour.
Richard Holden has urged Durham Police to reopen a probe into the Labour leader’s conduct during lockdown last year - but boasted on Facebook about having a work-related curry
29 Apr 2022
A statement on the North West Durham MP’s own Facebook page from May 1 last year casts his campaign in an awkward light.
Posting about a visit to Gurkhas in Kent the week before, he said: “It was particularly great to meet the young Gurkha soldiers and to chat with them properly over lunch in their mess and to find out more about them and their families back in Nepal.”
Durham Police issued a statement today saying it had received “a number of further communications”, which it will respond to in due course, but that it was not currently investigating the matter.
The biter bit … 
That was just one instance of Johnsons total disregard for the rules.
Obviously. 
Yes, that’s what I said. 
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he will quit if given a fine by Durham police for breaking Covid lockdown rules.
Speaking to reporters, the Labour leader insisted that he was “absolutely clear that no rules were broken”.
He said his accusers were “just trying to feed cynicism” about politicians.
Unlike BJ, then, Sir Keir intends to do the decent thing if found “guilty”. BJ, of course, will hang on, no matter how many FPNs he accumulates as he first UK PM to gain a police record while in office.
It took him a while to state this though, he really should have been a bit more honest about exactly what went on particularly over Angela Raynors attendance , he dug his own hole and now we wait the outcome of the police inquiry which may well seal his fate which in my view would not be such a bad thing for the Labour part given how weak he has been as leader.
1 Like
He may yet be proved “innocent”, while BJ, of course, will surely attract more FPNs … 