Starmer accused of breaking lockdown guidelines for hiring voice coach throughout COVID | Politics Information

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of breaking lockdown guidelines when a voice coach got here to Labour headquarters throughout COVID.

The Labour Occasion has denied the prime minister breached COVID guidelines in December 2020 for using actress and voice coach Leonie Mellinger to assist him put together a response to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.

Two Sunday Occasions journalists, Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund, mentioned of their guide Get In that Ms Mellinger suggested Sir Keir on his talking fashion.

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Excerpts of the guide mentioned she certified for “key worker” standing and visited the Labour Occasion’s headquarters on 24 December 2020 sporting a face masks.

On the time, London and the South East had been underneath Tier 4 restrictions, which meant no households had been allowed to combine and other people needed to earn a living from home except they had been unable to take action.

Conservative former minister Richard Holden has written to Sir Keir asking whether or not he thinks he was breaching the legislation.

A Labour spokesman mentioned: “The rules were followed at all times.”

It’s understood Sir Keir was working on the time with a small staff that was making ready him for a response to Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal, with a TV digicam filming all of it.

Picture:Voice coach and actor Leonie Mellinger. Pic: Alan Davidson/Shutterstock

A advice on Ms Mellinger’s web site from Sir Keir says: “Thanks for all your help and support along the way which made all this possible.”

Mr Holden has requested the prime minister if he’ll now appoint an unbiased investigator to clear up the claims.

The Tory MP wrote in his letter: “Do you think it would be right for other members of the public to get acting lessons during tier 4 restrictions?”

Signing off the letter, Mr Holden added: “There’s a sturdy public curiosity into your conduct through the pandemic and it’s clear from these revelations that not solely have you ever misled the general public however you had an off-the-cuff disregard for the legislation at a time when so many individuals had been making such tough sacrifices all within the service of advancing your individual political profession.

“You have said ‘honesty and decency matters’ – I hope you will treat these questions to you with the same standards you asked of others.”

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This isn’t the primary time Mr Holden has questioned Sir Keir’s lockdown conduct.

He queried the Labour chief’s conduct round “Beergate”, when Sir Keir and deputy chief Angela Rayner had been pictured consuming beer and consuming a takeaway at a Labour Occasion assembly throughout a neighborhood election marketing campaign in Durham in April 2021.

A police investigation discovered that they had not breached COVID guidelines because the occasion complied with the rules for work gatherings, with a pause for meals.