Starmer's leadership in crisis as he fails to win back Red Wall - and police ...

Keir Starmer’s leadership was in crisis last night after police launched an investigation into ‘Beergate’.

Durham Constabulary said they were opening a fresh inquiry into the notorious event when Sir Keir was filmed enjoying a late-night beer with party activists during lockdown.

The move is a humiliation for the Labour leader, who called on Boris Johnson to resign in January after police launched an inquiry into claims of lockdown-busting events in No 10.

In a tweet, he said: ‘Honesty and decency matter. He needs to do the decent thing and resign.’

Sir Keir ignored questions yesterday about whether he would adhere to his own standards and quit – insisting only that he had not broken the rules.

But a Cabinet source said Sir Keir had been ‘hoist by his own petard’, adding: ‘Who would have guessed that the holier-than-thou saint would turn out to be a total hypocrite?’

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries told the Daily Mail: ‘For three months, he attempted to divert the Government’s attention away from important and pressing issues such as the cost of living and the war in Ukraine by continuously calling for the PM to resign for nothing more than being investigated.

‘Do his inappropriate and repeatedly shrill-voiced standards apply to himself as well?’

One Labour backbencher branded Sir Kier’s actions in Durham ‘indefensible’ – telling PoliticsJoe they would refuse media interviews to avoid having to defend the party’s embattled leader.

A political adviser to Sir Keir added: ‘It’s a relief Durham police aren’t handing out retrospective fines. Because we would probably get one.’

Yesterday’s police intervention follows a string of revelations by the Mail about what really happened when Sir Keir gathered with MPs and officials in Durham Miners Hall on the night of April 30 last year.

Durham Constabulary said last night the force had received ‘significant new information’. 

The body blow for the Labour leader came as: 

Sir Keir’s dream of an electoral breakthrough fell flat as Labour failed to make significant gains in the crucial Red Wall councils Mr Johnson pledged a new focus on the cost of living after the Tories lost almost 400 seats on a 'tough' night for the Government The Lib Dems struck fear into southern Tories by claiming a string of victories Durham police faced questions about why they delayed their bombshell announcement until after the elections Disgraced former Labour mayor Lutfur Rahman was re-elected as mayor of Tower Hamlets after a five-year elections ban over vote-rigging Labour tightened its grip on the capital, seizing flagship Tory councils in Wandsworth, Westminster and Barnet

Last week this newspaper revealed that, despite denials stretching back three months, Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner was also present at the drinks in the Miners Hall.

Mrs Rayner, who also called for the PM to quit following the launch of the Partygate probe, is now likely to face questions from the police and face pressure to resign. The police initially rejected calls to investigate after reviewing a 43-second video filmed by a passer-by.

But in a statement yesterday, the force said: ‘Following the receipt of significant new information over recent days, Durham Constabulary... can confirm that an investigation into potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations relating to this gathering is now being conducted.’

Labour said Sir Keir, Mrs Rayner and others present would co-operate with detectives. In a brief statement to reporters, a shell-shocked Sir Keir said: ‘I understand the police need to do their job, we need to let them get on with that but I’m confident there was no breach of the rules.’

Privately, Labour insiders acknowledged that Sir Keir might have to resign if he is fined, having repeatedly called for the PM and Rishi Sunak to quit when they were fined £50 over a brief so-called ‘birthday party’ in the Cabinet room.

One Labour MP said the decision by Sir Keir and

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