Downing Street today insisted Sir Keir Starmer‘s meeting with his voice coach at the height of Covid restrictions had to be in person as they denied a breach of rules.
The PM has been left facing questions after it was revealed Leonie Mellinger, an actress and communications skills coach, visited Labour HQ on 24th December 2020.
She told the authors of a new book about Sir Keir that she used her ‘key worker’ status to visit the party’s London offices on Christmas Eve to assist the Labour leader.
At the time, Sir Keir was scrambling to put together his response to then-PM Boris Johnson‘s Brexit deal as negotiations concluded with the EU.
He gave a virtual press conference late on 24th December to confirm that Labour would back the trade agreement with Brussels.
Sir Keir has been left facing accusations of a breach of Covid rules by meeting his voice coach on a day when London was under severe ‘Tier 4’ restrictions.
There have also been questions about why Ms Mellinger had to visit the Labour leader in person, after it emerged she previously advised him via a video call.
But Sir Keir’s press secretary this afternoon said the PM believed it was not reasonably possible for her to have done the job she was carrying out from home.
The press secretary revealed Ms Mellinger was ‘core part of a small team’ assisting Sir Keir on the day, which also included now-Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Downing Street insisted Sir Keir Starmer’s meeting with his voice coach at the height of Covid restrictions had to be in person as they denied a breach of rules
The PM has been left facing questions after it was revealed Leonie Mellinger, an actress and communications skills coach, visited Labour HQ on 24th December 2020
At 6pm on Christmas Eve, Ms Mellinger shared a photo of herself travelling home on an otherwise deserted train carriage
At the time of Ms Mellinger’s visit to Sir Keir, Christmas had effectively been cancelled for millions of Britons after they were told they would no longer be able to mix with other households.
Workers were also told that ‘everyone must work from home unless they are unable to do so’.
There are also questions about whether Ms Mellinger travelled from a ‘Tier 3’ area to a ‘Tier 4’ area to meet with Sir Keir, when journeys into ‘Tier 4’ areas were prohibited.
At 6pm on Christmas Eve, she shared a photo of herself travelling home on an otherwise deserted train carriage. She uploaded an image of Brighton beach three days later.
Sir Keir defended meeting his voice coach in late 2020 when he was grilled at Prime Minister’s Questions today.
Gagan Mohindra, Tory MP for South West Hertfordshire, asked the PM: ‘Can he repeat his assurances that all rules were followed while the country was in Tier 4 lockdown in December 2020?
‘Not just by him, but his team as well, but also his voice coach Leonie Mellinger.’
The Prime Minister replied: ‘In December 2020, I was in my office working on the expected Brexit deal.
‘With my team, we had to analyse the deal as it came in at speed, prepare and deliver a live statement at speed on one of the most important issues for our country in recent years.
That’s what I was doing. What were they doing? Suitcases of booze into Downing Street, partying and fighting, vomiting up the walls, leaving the cleaners to remove red wine stains.
‘That’s the difference; I was working, they were partying.’
After PMQs, Sir Keir’s press secretary said Ms Mellinger was a ‘core part of a small team’ helping him prepare for statements and press conferences during the pandemic.
The Conservatives demanded a police investigation into whether laws were broken by Sir Keir’s voice coach.
A spokesman for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: ‘The key question here is: is a voice coach a key worker who can travel from Tier 4 to Tier 3 during lockdown?
‘It doesn’t matter if you’re part of a core team, that is the question. Now, Keir Starmer said that lawmakers can’t be lawbreakers.
‘It is almost unimaginable to disagree that that was a clear breach of the Covid rules.’
Asked if Mrs Badenoch thought police should investigate, he said: ‘Yes, she does.’
The spokesman added he was accusing Ms Mellinger of breaking the law, rather than Sir Keir, but claimed the comment about lawmakers not being lawbreakers applied to the PM ‘by proxy’.
