Sir Keir Starmer’s top business adviser attended No10 lockdown ‘party’ that PM slammed days ago
SIR Keir Starmer’s top business adviser attended the 10 Downing Street lockdown ‘party’ that the PM slammed just days ago, The Sun can reveal.
In a fresh hypocrisy row, Sir Keir stood in the No10 garden on Monday and blasted “a garden and a building that were once used for lockdown parties…remember the pictures just over there, of the wine and the food?”.
But now it can be revealed that one of his most senior political aides was snapped alongside Boris Johnson as the former PM tucked into wine and cheese at the height of lockdown.
Varun Chandra serves as Starmer’s business adviser and was a guest in No10 on May 15 2020, appearing in the background of the controversial photograph.
The smoothy networker was hired last month to liaise with city bosses and big business on behalf of the Labour chief.
He previously worked for private intelligence firm Hakluyt, founded by ex-MI6 spooks, as well as the bust bank Lehman Brothers.
Downing Street declined to comment but sources argued Mr Chandra was attending a meeting with civil service officials in the garden that evening.
Despite Sir Keir’s attack on the ‘party’ in his speech earlier this week, No10 insiders later claimed Sue Gray had ruled the gathering did not breach lockdown rules.
Gray was later hired by Labour to be No10 Chief of Staff.
Last night Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Alex Burghart said: “This the sort of rank hypocrisy and double standards that we have already come to expect from this dreary government.
“The question now is whether Sir Keir Starmer and Sue Gray, his Partygate inquisitor, knew about it this when Mr Chandra was hired – and what due diligence they did?”