Durham Police risk looking like hypocrites over Starmer case having not fined Cummings

After becoming the focus of not one but two political scandals over alleged Covid breaches, Durham Constabulary find themselves in an awkward position.

In the first, they came under pressure to investigate Dominic Cummings – then the prime minister’s chief adviser – for taking his family from London to the northeast while infected with coronavirus during the first national lockdown.

Officers concluded that he might have committed a “minor breach” of the law by driving to Barnard Castle, but that issuing a fine months later “would amount to treating Mr Cummings differently from other members of the public”.

The force added: “Durham Constabulary has not taken retrospective action against any other person.”

It is now at the centre of another political controversy – this time concerning the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner and other politicians and staffers at a gathering in April 2021.

Durham Constabulary initially decided to take no action over images of Sir Keir drinking a beer inside the constituency office of Labour MP Mary Foy, which resurfaced while being widely shared by Conservatives during the “Partygate” scandal.

“Following the receipt of significant new information over recent days, Durham Constabulary has reviewed that position,” a spokesperson added. “We can confirm that an investigation into potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations relating to this gathering is now being conducted.”

Unlike when Durham Constabulary investigated Mr Cummings, a precedent is now in place for issuing retrospective fines for Covid breaches.

The Metropolitan Police had initially resisted the move itself before performing a U-turn amid widespread outrage over reports of numerous illegal parties in Downing Street.

It will therefore be difficult for officers not to fine Sir Keir and other attendees at the Durham event if it is found to have broken the law. But the force risks opening itself up to accusations of hypocrisy if Labour MPs are penalised when Tory aide Mr Cummings was not.

British police forces safeguard their political independence and know they cannot afford accusations of bias to cloud public trust.

Investigating politicians is not something they are used to or comfortable with, but leaders also know that they must be seen to apply the law equally, regardless of position or status.

That was the reason behind initial national guidance for enforcing unprecedented Covid laws: talk to people, explain the rules, encourage people to follow them and only use fines as a last resort.

Officers were instructed to focus on breaches that posed the highest public health risk, and penalties were issued on the spot by officers who witnessed lawbreaking first-hand.

Following the Cummings scandal, commanders in charge of the policing response to Covid issued a direction to all forces saying that retrospective investigations could be carried out for egregious breaches, if they were merited, proportionate and in the public interest.

But the decision on what meets those criteria still sits with individual forces, leaving Durham Constabulary squarely in the national spotlight.

Whatever decision it makes on “Beergate”, the force is unlikely to escape yet another political row.