Angela Rayner says she will not appeal if police find she broke Covid rules

Angela Rayner says she will not appeal if she is found to have broken Covid rules.

Durham Police are looking into whether the rules were violated after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was caught on camera drinking a beer in an MP's office after a day of campaigning for the local elections in Durham in April 2021.

Ms Rayner also attended the event, and both have said that they will stand down if they are issued with fixed-penalty notices.

Asked if she and Sir Keir would not appeal against the police's conclusions, the Labour deputy leader said: "Well, yeah, we'll accept the findings.

"You know, it's very clear that both myself and Keir believe that we believe in the rule of law.

"We believe that if you're a lawmaker, you can't be a lawbreaker, and that we couldn't lead the party under those conditions.

"We've got a Prime Minister who spent the last couple of months trying to cling on to power that has devastated the British public and we've not been dealing with the issues that matter to them."

Ms Rayner also said that the Labour Party could replace her and Sir Keir Starmer "very quickly" if they are forced to resign.

"Well, we could do it very quickly", she said.

"I mean, our procedures would be that the NEC would delegate the timetable, but we've got a host of talent in our party that could step forward, because we are one team and we are a government in waiting."

However, she said that she was confident that they did not break the rules.

"But as I say, both myself and Keir are very confident that we didn't break any rules", she said.

"We were very clear of the contract with the British public when we voted for those restrictions that they were in place to keep people safe and we adhered to those and we've complied with Durham police and we'll continue to do (so).

"We're very confident that we'll continue to lead our party as we have done since we were both elected into victory so that we can govern for the British people and deal with a cost-of-living crisis and things that matter to them."

In May, Durham Constabulary announced they had reversed an earlier decision that no offence had been committed, after receiving "significant new information".

At the time of the Durham gathering, non-essential retail and outdoor venues including pub gardens were open, but social distancing rules, which included a ban on indoor mixing between households, remained in place.

But Labour has argued that food was consumed between work events, meaning it was within the rules.

Hear the latest news on Downtown on FM, DAB, smart speaker or the Rayo app.