Keir Starmer has said he “really hated” being subject to a recent criminal investigation by Durham during the so-called “Beergate” saga.
The Labour leader said the Durham Constabulary probe into claims he breached Covid rules was a “burden” and he was “massively pleased” when he was cleared.
Sir Keir and his deputy Angela Rayner had pledged to resign if they received fines in relation to a gathering in the offices of a local Labour MP in England’s north east in April 2021.
However, the police found there was no case to answer. The investigation, if it had resulted in fixed-penalty notices, would have plunged the party into political turmoil just as the Tories with the resignation of Boris Johnson.
Speaking to Beth Rigby Interviews on Sky News, Sir Keir said: “I really hated it, if I’m honest, being subject to a criminal investigation, when you’ve been the director of public prosecutions, I hated it.
“I’m not like other people in many respects, who may say, well, it doesn’t really matter … it really meant a lot to me.”
Starmer added: “It was a burden that I was carrying. I’m trying not to show it of course. But it was, you know, it was there every day. And of course, I was massively pleased when the decision came through, completely exonerated me.”
The Labour leader said he spoke to his wife before putting his “whole career on the line” by pledging to resign if he was found to have broken the rules.
“Everything I’ve ever done, been a lawyer, I’ve worked in Northern Ireland, I’ve been director of public prosecutions, been an MP, leader of the Labour Party, I put all of that on the line,” he said.
He said he was in the north west of the country when the police announced they had decided to launch an investigation into the matter after receiving “significant new information”.
“I got the train back that afternoon and I knew in my gut, what I was going to do, Vic knew I was going to do,” he said. “And she supported me through it. But I needed to talk to her about it, [it] was such a big decision.”
Reflecting on his leadership, and how he may be viewed, Sir Keir said he does not think he is boring, but: “I’m not going to pretend that I think that politics is a branch of the entertainment business, it’s not.”
He also revealed that he preferred getting out of Westminster to the “formalities” of the Commons. “All the formalities of the parliament, the way we debate, I find it very stifling,” he said.
“What I like is when we get out, we go around the country, we talk to people where they are, whatever they are doing.
“And I often say to them, what do you want from a government? What’s the thing that you want most? And none of them say to me, ‘Oh, we need a bit more entertainment’. We need a few one liners’. They say ‘I want someone serious, who understands my life’.”
Starmer was also pressed on Labour’s position on the recent train strikes which crippled the country. He said he told his shadow cabinet that those in government have to “resolve these issues” rather than join the picket line.
“One of the problems we’ve had in a party for a long time now is that we envisage ourselves as in opposition the whole time, we have to get in the mindset of being in government,” he said.
“If you’re in government ... and you’re around the cabinet table, then you have to resolve these issues, you have to make sure that the negotiations complete successfully. You can’t have a cabinet meeting and then go out onto the picket line.”
He added that “of course” a prime minister cannot go on a picket line. “The prime minister has to run the country, has to bring people together around the negotiating table,” he said.
“But that can’t be and shouldn’t be translated into a lack of understanding, to just how much people are struggling after 10 years of Tory failure on the economy.”
