Starmer denies voice coaching breached Covid rules


Last year, Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition, was said to have taken voice coaching lessons during the Covid-19 lockdown. However, Sir Keir has recently denied any rules were broken during his receiving of the coaching lessons. Leonie Miller was invited to coach Sir Keir on his response to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, at which time accusations were made of a potential rule breach by the opposition leader. Sir Keir declared that he is innocent when questioned by the public before leaving a Nato press conference in Brussels, and called the accusations against him unfounded.

While some have questioned whether the meeting constituted a breach of restrictions during the pandemic, the journalist who was enlisted to provide the voice coaching received key worker status and wore a face mask during her visit to Labour headquarters in December 2020. The details of the voice coaching visit were disclosed in Get In, a book which delves into Sir Keir’s rise to power, excerpted in the Sunday Times.

Some members of Parliament have made hay of the accusations leveled against Sir Keir. A former Conservative minister, Richard Holden, asked Boris Johnson to confirm whether or not Sir Keir violated any restrictions during the coaching session. The prime minister has not provided any reply thus far. Additionally, Catherine McKinnell, the school standards minister, suggested that the incident in question stands in stark contrast to what was happening with multiple parties in Downing Street and at the Conservative HQ during similar lockdowns.

Although Sir Keir and the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, were cleared of alleged breaches of the lockdown rules earlier this year, much criticism has already been boisterously leveled at the leader of the opposition for receiving voice coaching lessons during a time when regular citizens in the UK were largely unable to do so. The matter has not yet reached a resolution

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