The Metropolitan Police was never going to make much of a fuss about events at which its own Officers must have been present, and it is in any case a very grave matter to bring down the Prime Minister, but no Durham Police Officers will have been present at Keir Starmer's soirée, and bringing down the Leader of the Opposition is hardly the same.
The Labour Party no longer controls or even leads either Durham County Council or Darlington Borough Council, which are the two unitary authorities the areas of which are covered by Durham Police. In each of those areas at the last General Election, more people voted Conservative than voted Labour, giving Darlington a Conservative MP and County Durham three of each, but with fewer Labour than Conservative voters.
Labour's last powerbase here is the Police and Crime Commissionership, and the credibility of that now depends on handing Starmer the £10,000 Fixed Penalty Notice that anyone else would certainly have received for a prearranged meal and booze-up for at least 15 people, although the bill would suggest twice as many. Since this event was supposedly held in relation to the Hartlepool by-election, 20 miles away and thus 20 miles from a Radisson Blu, then the details must appear in the spending returns. Mustn't they?
The electorate knows Johnson and Starmer are both guilty but Starmer had paid no penalty.
ReplyDeleteNot yet, he hasn't.
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