Sir Keir Starmer faces questions after voice coach ‘travelled 50 miles between lockdown tiers to meet him’
SIR Keir Starmer's personal voice coach appears to have travelled more than 50 miles between lockdown tiers to meet him while Stay at Home orders were in place.
The PM beat a hasty retreat from mounting questions last night over why actress Leonie Mellinger was brought to his office for a Brexit press conference when London was under the strictest Tier 4 lockdown restrictions.
The actress, who is understood to live in Brighton, charted her journey home on social media, despite the Sussex town being under looser Tier 3 restrictions on Christmas Eve 2020.
Tier 4 rules at the time said workers must stay at home and not cross tier thresholds without a legal exemption, with offices and retail shuttered.
But both No10 and the actress swerved questions about how her work possibly qualified for key worker status reserved for those directly helping the public or serving the pandemic response.
Confronted last night in Brussels, the PM said "of course not" when asked if he had broken the rules but quickly exited a NATO press conference to avoid further scrutiny.
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He muttered "all the rules were followed" as he made for the door amid a barrage of questions from journalists.
Furious Tories are demanding an independent probe into how the travel and meeting were possibly within the legally binding Tier 4 rules.
A new book about the Labour leader called “Get In” claims Sir Keir slapped an "essential worker" label on Ms Mellinger so she could coach him at Labour HQ on 24 December 2020.
The now-PM was responding to Boris Johnson's Brexit deal on the day in question, with his voice coach by his side.
Shadow Paymaster General Richard Holden blasted Downing Street for trying to “dismiss, dodge, and dissemble” over whether their face to face meeting broke the law.
Mr Holden, who has written to the PM demanding answers, added: “With so many questions to answer, Sir Keir needs to come clean and appoint an independent investigator without delay now even his own spokesman is refusing to answer even the most basic of questions.”
A Labour spokesman said: “The rules were followed at all times.”
Ms Mellinger did not respond to requests for an explanation how her travel was within the rules.