Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has explained an image of him eating takeaway and drinking beer in an office with others during lockdown.
The incident happened in April 2021 in the run-up to the May 2021 elections.
At the time coronavirus rules meant indoor socialising was banned in England.
Sir Keir told LBC Radio: “The restrictions allowed people to work when they needed to, we were running an election campaign, we were in a constituency office.”
He said no restaurants or pubs were open and the hotel he and colleagues were staying in did not serve food so “if you didn’t get a takeaway then our team wasn’t eating that evening”.
Asked if he was prepared to apologise, Sir Keir said: “We didn’t break any rules, we were working in the office and we stopped for a takeaway.”
He added: “We did nothing wrong.”
Sir Keir said he usually travelled with a team of around six people and the incident took place in City of Durham MP Mary Foy’s office.
