An investigation into whether or not Sir Keir Starmer broke COVID guidelines price Durham Police over £100,000, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.
The Labour chief confronted accusations after being pictured ingesting a beer in an MP’s workplace in April 2021, with the incident being dubbed “beergate” by the press.
He and his workforce have been later cleared of wrongdoing by the power.
The FOI, put in by National World, confirmed 9 officers from Durham Police’s Major Crimes Team spent roughly 3,203 hours engaged on the investigation.
And the entire price of the probe was round £101,000, funded by the overall policing finances – which itself is paid by means of authorities grants and native council tax precepts.
The gathering happened within the run-up to a by-election within the metropolis, with Sir Keir, Labour’s deputy chief Angela Rayner, and different members of his workforce on the bottom campaigning.
At the time, there was nonetheless a ban on indoor mixing between households, however essential work occasions have been exempt.
The police had cleared the group of breaking COVID guidelines again in February, however re-opened the investigation after saying that they had acquired “significant new information”.
Both Sir Keir and Ms Rayner had pledged to resign their management roles if the power discovered that they had damaged the regulation.
After being cleared, the Labour chief stated: “People said to me I was taking a risk by saying I would step down if I was fined. But it was never about that.
“For me it was a matter of precept. It should not be controversial to say those that make the regulation cannot break the regulation. But we’ve to set the bar far increased than that.”
The inquiry happened on the similar time the Metropolitan Police was wanting right into a raft of rule-breaking events inside Downing Street.
That probe ended with 126 fastened penalty notices being issued, together with to the then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his spouse Carrie, and then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak for attending a party for the PM.
Source: information.sky.com”