After Starmer: what’s next for Labour?

Sometimes a plan can be too successful. When Durham police announced on the day of the local election results that they would investigate Keir Starmer over ‘beergate’ – an event in April last year where Starmer was filmed drinking a beer with Labour staff, at a time when indoor socialising was banned – Tory MPs were delighted. After months of Starmer attacking the government for partygate and demanding Boris Johnson’s resignation, it was the Labour leader’s turn to face allegations that he broke Covid rules. ‘Delicious,’ as one member of government put it.

The initial hope in Conservative Campaign Headquarters was that a police investigation into beergate would silence Labour MPs’ calls for resignations and stop them scoring points from the sidelines. The Tories can claim some victory on that front: party-gate didn’t come up in the leaders’ exchanges following this week’s Queen’s Speech. Voters might conclude that Starmer and Johnson are as bad as each other.