UK’s Labour Party leader Keir Starmer vowed to resign from his position if found guilty of breaching COVID-19 lockdown rules with staffers last year.
Durham police re-launched its investigation after footage emerged of Starmer and staff having beers and takeout in April 2021 – at a time when millions of Brits were banned from mixing indoors.
Now, Starmer promises to step down as Labour leader if he’s issued a fine from officials.
“If police decide to issue me with a fixed penalty notice, I would of course do the right thing and step down,” Starmer told The Post in a statement.
“I believe in honor, integrity, and the principle that those who make the rules must follow them.”
“This matters. It matters because the British public deserves politicians who think the rules apply to them,” his statement said.
“They deserve politicians who hold themselves to the highest standards. And they deserve politicians who put the country first rather than themselves. They will always, always, get that from me,” he added.
Starmer’s deputy, Angela Rayner, who admitted attending the gathering, said she would resign if she was found to have broken the rules.
“No rules were broken. Eating during a long day’s work was not against the rules,” she said in a statement to The Post.
“We have a prime minister who has been found to have broken the rules, lied about it and then been fined. If I were issued with a fine, I would do the decent thing and step down.”
The so-called “beergate” scandal is especially controversial as Starmer repeatedly called for Johnson to resign over his own breach of COVID-19 rules.
Starmer, who has been a long-time vocal critic of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s rule-breaking “partygate” scandal, said he was “absolutely clear that no laws were broken” in his case.
The “partygate” scandal refers to the 12 illegal social gatherings Johnson’s Conservative Party was embroiled in throughout lockdown when the same government put social distancing measures in place.
The Conservative Party and Johnson did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.