UK Labour party leader Starmer cleared of wrongdoing after lockdown investigation
July 8, 2022, 5:25 pm

UK Labour party leader Starmer cleared of wrongdoing after lockdown investigation

Keir Starmer: Incredible to be with the winning Labour team in Barnet to celebrate this historic local election result (Official Twitter account)

British opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer was cleared by police of breaking COVID-19 lockdown laws on Friday, having said he would quit his job if he was fined, the Alarabiya English reported, citing Reuters.

A day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he would resign following a series of scandals, including repeated lockdown breaches at his Downing Street office, police said Starmer had not broken the regulations.

Starmer said on Twitter: “I’ve always said no rules were broken when I was in Durham. The police have completed their investigation and agreed: there is no case to answer. For me, this was always a matter of principle. Honesty and integrity matter.”

Alleged breaches of coronavirus rules became a politically explosive issue for Johnson following the “partygate” scandal that saw the prime minister and scores of others fined for attending illegal gatherings in Downing Street or other government offices.

Britain's Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer speaks during a session in Parliament, in London, Britain. © Reuters / Jessica Taylor

Starmer faced his own investigation after a video of him emerged drinking beer at a get-together in April 2021 during campaigning for a parliamentary seat election.

Gatherings indoors were banned at the time unless they were essential. Starmer said he had paused for a meal and went back to work later.

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Seeking to draw a contrast with Johnson, who had already been fined for breaching lockdown regulations but did not stand down, Starmer had pledged to resign if he was found to have broken the rules. Starmer’s deputy Angela Rayner, who was also at the Durham gathering, had made the same promise.

Durham Police said in a statement there was “no case to answer for a contravention of the regulations, due to the application of an exception, namely reasonably necessary work.”

“Accordingly, Durham Constabulary will not be issuing any fixed penalty notices in respect of the gathering and no further action will be taken.”

UK Labour's Keir Starmer to resign if fined for COVID rule breach

The revelations of rule-breaking Downing Street parties and Johnson’s subsequent response were a major factor fueling the discontent against him in his Conservative Party that led to Thursday’s resignation announcement.

Source: alarabiyaenglish

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BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
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