Tory MPs welcome Starmer 'beergate' probe – 'the same rules must apply'

Durham Police had initially said no rules were broken when Sir Keir and his aides had drinks and a takeaway in April 2021 when Britain was under Covid rules.

But the force has now declared it would investigate after "significant new information" about the gathering came to light. Sir Keir has repeatedly denied that any rules were broken at the event, which was also reportedly attended by Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner.

Mike Wood, Conservative MP for Dudley South, said the force had made the "right decision" to re-investigate and that the public needed to know whether any rules were breached.

He told GB News: "It's really important that it's clear that the same rules actually do apply to everybody.

"And I think the public need to know whether Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner are guilty of quite a lot of hypocrisy over the last few months with what they’ve been saying in Parliament and outside parliament and now really how much they've been clamming up when they’ve been asked legitimate questions about what looks a lot like a party in Durham."

Sir Keir and Ms Rayner have repeatedly called for the Prime Minister and Chancellor Rishi Sunak to resign since earlier this year when the Met Police launched a probe into Downing Street lockdown gatherings.

Marco Longhi, Conservative MP for Dudley North, said the pair had spent months "Boris-bashing" and calling for the PM's head.

He told the Express & Star: "Now that Durham Police have confirmed they are being investigated, the question is, what should Starmer and Angela Rayner do?

"They have been calling for resignations while at the same time behaving in a way that they surely must have known was inappropriate.

"It is a double whammy for them. There's a hypocrisy here that just defies any rationale."

Mr Wood questioned whether there was any difference in the Labour event and the gathering that Mr Johnson and the Chancellor were fined for attending.

He said: "It's difficult to understand at the moment why, Rishi Sunak having a glass of water on the Prime Minister's birthday in the Cabinet Room in a building he was working in anyway, it was a breach of the regulations, whereas what we assume was a significant number of Labour Party officials, shadow ministers and activists having a curry and a beer at the end of the campaign day, why that wasn't a breach.

“It looks at least as serious, so if they do decide their rules were broken then it does need to be explained, ‘OK, so what actually was the difference?’"

He added: "I think if this was a breach of the rules, as the police and the lawyers understand it, then that needs to be applied evenly and consistently and it doesn't matter which party you're from."