Anyone with doubts about Keir Starmer’s integrity should pay attention to what he has just done.
The Labour leader has put his reputation on the line.
Facing a smear from the Conservatives that he too broke lockdown rules, by having a beer and a curry in a Labour MP’s office while campaigning in a by-election, Starmer has stood his ground.
If he is fined by police for breaking the lockdown rules he will resign as party leader. No ifs, no buts.
He is applying the same standard to himself as he has done to Boris Johnson - to abide by the rules as we all did.
Starmer is a cautious individual and this is a bold strategy but it is refreshing to see a politician stand by their principles.
The Tory ‘beergate’ smears are an attempt to persuade the public that Starmer’s alleged rule breaking is somehow equivalent to the party house that Boris Johnson turned Downing Street into.
The agenda being pushed by the Conservatives, and their players in the media, is to spread the dirt and make out that all politicians are the same.
But the truth is quite simple. The Tories have been breaking corona rules in Downing Street on an industrial scale. Starmer was simply eating and having a drink in the course of his work.
That’s what Nicola Sturgeon correctly identified when she said the Tory tactics were simply an attempt to distract from serious breaches of corona rules within the highest reaches of the Tory government.
Voters are not fools, they can see which politicians are rogues and which have honour. Yesterday they saw what integrity looks like in politics.
Clean up politics
All political parties must have robust processes in place to deal with sexual harassment allegations.
As we reveal today, the SNP’s handling of claims against MP Patrick Grady is a case study in how not to do it.
Grady was alleged to have harassed a 19 year old SNP staffer and an informal meeting was set up with the complainer to handle the issue.
An apology was said to have been offered and the MP in question then put on conduct training.
The controversy was kept out of the public domain and Grady later led on a Commons debate on sexual harassment.
This debacle has been followed by an official complaint, which has reportedly been upheld.
All political parties need to make sure their procedures are fair when it comes to claims of harassment.
Only when complainers have confidence in the process will they be more willing to come forward and flag up wrong-doing.
Our political system has never been held in such low regard.
So it is vital for a healthy democracy that our political parties are seen to lead change - not contribute to the problem.
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