To think Labour are hypocrites

[Labscollie]

Beergate. Turns out the event was planned. To think of all the slating Starmer gave Johnson. 🤔 This site's favourite newspaper, the Dailymail, has released a leaked memo, which might mark Starmer's downfall. If Johnson could survive, can Starmer?

Boris has got a lot of stick for partygate so if Starmer was found to be no different it shows they are all 'just as bad' and let's Boris off the hook.

He has used partygate to full advantage for months so yes people will find him hypocritical.

He’s lucky it resurfaced after the local elections as all this has impacted votes.

Let us wait to see if any fines are issued. Having a meal during election campaigning is very different from a BYOB party, whether or not within the Covid 19 restrictions at the time or not.

Yes, they are.

TBH, I never had a problem with members of either party having a drink after work, even during Covid. But to lie about it in parliament, deny it ever happened, minimise it and demand that members of the other side step down when you damn well knew you'd done the same things yourself - now that I get pissed off about.

Hard to trust any of them isn't it? Self serving, the lot of them.

I'm not sure. If he has been found to be breaking the rules then I'll be disappointed & he'll have to go. But it was a very different time in the pandemic from the Downing Street transgressions & I'm not sure he has. He is guilty of handling it badly. Whatever happens it's not on the scale of what happened in the No 10 'inner circle' & the Right Wing Press launched a targeted attack to coincide with the Local Elections. It's been shameless & relentless.

I really don’t think he did break any rules - a meal while working is totally different to a whole parade of pre-Meditated parties

agree it’s awkward but the police have been put under impossible pressure by the Tory party and media. As If they don’t have more important things to do
anyway if he does get a fine Starmer will resign immediately which will make Boris look even weaker. So he’ll get the last laugh.

There is a hell of a difference between having a takeaway during a work event and having 20+ parties when you wrote the rules in the first place.

Nothing Starmer may have done remotely justifies Johnson's contempt for the public.

That said, if Starmer is fined he must resign. We can't keep putting up with such fucking low standards from politicians.

The difference to me is that Starmer spent 4 months calling for the resignation of Boris and rishi for stopping for cake in a meeting and yet has arguably done something worse. Yes it is hypocritical but the sanctimonious preaching is worse.
Neither event is a resignation matter, it’s all stupid but Keir is now going to have to resign if issued with a ftpn which is his own stupidity and lack of forethought and desire to get one over Boris. That’s on him. Angela too.
Boris should say nothing but if asked say he doesn’t think it’s a resigning matter ( as it isn’t) but that Keir should make his own decision. Egg also on faces of all the equally idiotic media that encouraged Keir to keep going on about it. They are all as bad as each other. It’s embarrassing for all of them.

I don't think so. Johnson & his acolytes have spun quite a story about how this is very trivial. He's shameless enough to carry on & profit from it.

Keir supported all the rules and worse wanted them to be harder and longer!

That's yet another right wing media lie

If people are working together all day in an office, for weeks on end, I don't see how having food and drinks together at the middle or end of the day makes the tiniest bit of a difference to the risk of infection. No one seems to talk about how likely one of these "parties" was to increase the chance of someone spreading Covid, which was the whole point of the rules!

This applies to all the work party stuff, Tory or Labour. The rules were hastily thought up, and made no sense in certain situations. Now the press are trying to hold people to impossible standards.

Starmer is looking silly after all his faux-moralising.

The circumstances are very different
Planned to get a takeaway delivered and drink a beer when working away from home - they did need to eat.
May 2020 sending aides with suitcases to fill up with wine to drink in downing Street when they had made the rules and the police were visiting elderly people who drank coffee in a communal garden, and questioning someone who went for a walk wearing jeans.
Context is everything

I find it ludicrous too but he has done this to gain political advantage - arguably the only advantage he could maintain with the help of DC and media - so painted himself into his own corner.

re rules at the time apparently it was this -

Covid rules in place at the time meant it was illegal for people in England to socialise indoors with people from outside their household or support bubble.

so don’t seem different

I'll wait until the police report.

But they weren't the same in regards so many things.

Johnson's birthday party was during the first heavy LD of 2020. It wasn't a work meal or event as he had his spouse, interior designer and official photographer there.

I wouldn't have had an issue if they were genuinely having food as they were working hard. Even in the garden. They were working long hours and food is needed to function. Alcohol after work to enjoy the sunshine as a planned social event with email invites is not.

Again - I will say the same re labours Durham gathering. If it's deemed to have been a party with people from outside the campaign invited to socialise it's very different form people who had been working all day and the food was planned as part of needing to eat.

As much as I'm neutral on the outcome and agree Starmer should resign after saying the same to Johnson - I'm also pretty sure that Starmer wouldn't have knowingly broke the law because he's so loyal to his lawyer status.

The most interesting thing will be if Starmer does resign. There's no way out for Johnson after that. He either has to say Starmer was wrong to resign because parties are fine or say Starmer is the better person for resigning for lawbreaking.

Either way I think the fallout for our PM Johnson will be bigger than the Starmers.

You don't think that if you make rules you should stick to them yourself? That publicly praising a 7 year old for cancelling her birthday party while doing it himself is disgraceful? And let's not forget that the fine he has received is for the most minor of events we know he attended. And while he was doing it people couldn't attend loved ones funerals or hold their hands when they died. It may be that these laws were draconian but Johnson set them.

I'm not sure. If he has been found to be breaking the rules then I'll be disappointed & he'll have to go. But it was a very different time in the pandemic from the Downing Street transgressions & I'm not sure he has. He is guilty of handling it badly. Whatever happens it's not on the scale of what happened in the No 10 'inner circle' & the Right Wing Press launched a targeted attack to coincide with the Local Elections. It's been shameless & relentless

Its nice to see a lick of sense in a sea of Tory apologists.

What a mess the last 2 years have been. The pandemic has tested many people and their principles.

Starmer called for Rishi to resign over cake during a meeting in June 2020. If that is a resigning matter ( according to Starmer anyway) then curry for 30 after work with extra people joining them and not working afterward is too. What’s the material difference between what Rishi did ( and got a fine) and what Starmer did?
Both are stupid reasons to resign but Rishi is not calling for Starmer’s resignation ( wisely)

lisa Nandy told them to shut up about cake and party gate and was ignored. She has a better political antennae than Keir does.
But I also blame the twitterati and media too who were not equally stupid.

You don’t mind Starmer under police investigation.. Why do you feel differently

would you want him to go if fined?

I think it’s all ridiculous and other than the high level of hypocritical moralising he has used he shouldn’t resign

but even his own party shuffle around and say he should go if he is. Do you agree with them?

The most interesting thing will be if Starmer does resign. There's no way out for Johnson after that. He either has to say Starmer was wrong to resign because parties are fine or say Starmer is the better person for resigning for lawbreaking.

I really think he'll just ignore it like he's done for numerous other things which would have sunk other politicians.

He doesn't care about being known as corrupt and hypocritical and, for whatever reason, the Tories back him.

I'm also unsure. It doesn't look good but we don't have all the facts yet. There is obviously a lot of political pressure to investigate but that doesn't necessarily mean that any rules have been broken.

If he is fined, then I think he will absolutely have to resign, no question. It would be incredibly hypocritical to stay in post, and if he doesn't go of his own accord, then the Labour Party needs to sack him. There is no room for any flexibility on this.

If the police conclude their investigation and confirm that no rules were broken, then obviously, he can continue. I don't know enough of the detail to know whether or not this is likely to be the case.

Personally, I would be quite surprised if he was found to have broken the rules given what he said about Boris. If there was ever any shadow of a doubt that he might get caught out himself, you'd think he might have been a bit more circumspect in his response. He doesn't strike me as a stupid man, or as a massive risk taker, but who knows?

If he is fined and he does step down, I guess that will make Boris's position rather difficult, especially if there are more fines for number 10. Labour could at least say that Starmer had taken responsibility and fallen on his sword. If Starmer is fined and stays in post, though, the Labour Party clearly won't have a leg to stand on with regard to any further comments on partygate. And the electorate will understandably conclude that they're all as bad as each other.

Pot, kettle, black are a few words that come to mind here😳😳

Gosh, I never thought this would happen after Boris being slated for PartyGate

The powers to be wonder why people don’t trust politicians 😳😳

If people are working together all day in an office, for weeks on end, I don't see how having food and drinks together at the middle or end of the day makes the tiniest bit of a difference to the risk of infection. No one seems to talk about how likely one of these "parties" was to increase the chance of someone spreading Covid, which was the whole point of the rules!

That's not really the point though, when they came up with & voted for the rules. If the rules were ridiculous (and arguably saying that people working in the same office all day can't eat together is ridiculous) then they should have changed them/argued for them to be changed. Not kept them in place for the rest of us while breaking them themselves. The rules were no social gatherings at work, of course there's no actual additional risk once you add a plate of food to an office (although that doesn't explain the presence of Carrie, the baby and the interior designer) but that wasn't the rule.

No matter how ridiculous a rule may or may not have been, if you brought it in, you should stick to it. If Boris insisted a 30mph speed limit on the motorway was essential, and was then caught doing 35mph, that would be wrong even though the rule itself would be absurd.