LONDON (Reuters) – British police said on Friday they were investigating an alleged breach by opposition Labor leader Keir Starmer of 2021 lockdown rules.
Keir Starmer has repeatedly called in recent weeks for the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Finance Minister Rishi Sunak after they were fined for attending a Prime Minister Downing Street birthday party in June 2020 .
An official report concluded that the Prime Minister’s office had organized several alcoholic parties during the confinement and Boris Johnson faces new fines following the ongoing police investigations.
The affair resulted in a sharp decline in the popularity of the head of government and that of the Conservative Party, which lost several historic strongholds in local elections on Thursday.
Keir Starmer, on the other hand, appears in images dating from April 2021 drinking a beer with colleagues indoors during a trip to the northeast of England, when such gatherings were prohibited at the time.
Durham Police initially said no offense had been established but on Friday said they had opened an investigation “following the receipt of significant new information in recent days”.
A spokesman for the Labor Party assured that it would be “obviously happy to answer all questions”.
“We continue to make it clear that no rules have been broken,” he added.
(Report by William James and Muvija M; French version Elena Vardon and Marc Angrand)