Keir Starmer police questionnaire ‘asks about non-league football shirt’

A police questionnaire given to Sir Keir Starmer is said to include a series of questions about a non-league football shirt handed to the Labour leader during last year’s visit to Durham.

Durham Constabulary is investigating potential breaches of Covid laws by Starmer and his team over the “Beergate” gathering at which beer and curry was consumed.

The questionnaires sent to Starmer, Labour deputy Angela Rayner and party staff is “incredibly comprehensive” – and includes queries about a Consett AFC football top, according to The Times.

The Durham non-league team’s shirt was handed to Sir Keir on 30 April when the Labour leader was campaigning for the local elections.

The North West Durham Labour Party tweeted at the time that they had “interrupted Keir Starmer while he was hard at work ... to proudly show him our Consett AFC strip ahead of their historic FA Vase final”.

When the photo of Starmer holding the shirt emerged in the Daily Mail in May, a Labour spokesman said: “As this tweet clearly shows, Keir Starmer was working. No rules were broken.”

The Durham force announced last month that it would probe potential breach of Covid laws by Starmer and Labour staff over 30 April gathering at the party’s constituency office at which beer and curry was consumed.

It came despite the fact the force initially decided not to take action when images of Starmer drinking a beer gathering first appeared.

Starmer has vowed to resign if he is issued with a fixed penalty notice by the force. “I believe in honour, integrity and the principle that those who make the rules must follow them,” he said last month.

Both Sir Keir and Ms Rayner have continued to stress that they believe none of the regional Tier 2 rules in place at the time – which allowed for political campaigning – were broken.

Starmer has said he and his team had “got on with their work” as the ate takeaway curry. “I simply had something to eat while working late in the evening, as any politician would do days before an election.”

But senior Labour MP Nick Brown, formerly chief whip under six party leaders, has suggested Starmer could put himself forward in a leadership contest even after he upholds his promise to step down.

The ex-minister last week told BBC Politics North: “If they did [fine him], Keir would do what he said he would do and would resign. And I would be the first person urging him to seek re-election and to lead us into the next general election.”

Ms Rayner, who was also at the event last spring, said she too would “do the decent thing and step down” if issued with a fixed penalty notice.