The halo has slipped for the Labour Party, they have vacated the moral high ground, says Mark Dolan

A week, of labour lies. After months of denial, the Labour Party, were forced to admit, that their deputy leader Angela Rayner, was is in attendance at a gathering in Durham, where Keir Starmer drank beer. And after months, of haranguing the prime minister, about partygate, which was disgraceful hypocrisy from number 10, how is Sir Beer Starmer, in a position to comment, following the release of this footage.

There he is, drinking beer with colleagues during lockdown. Doesn’t look like a meeting to me. Except maybe an AA one, that’s gone badly wrong.

But it gets worse. Just a week ago, the brilliant mail on Sunday newspaper, a courageous, and well crafted tablet of truth, was hauled, over the coals, over a front page PIECE, by their political editor, Glenn Owen. The story, reported that Angela Rayner, a woman whose legwork, is now more famous than Ginger Rogers, flicks her pins in the air, and intimately reveals herself, like Sharon Stone in the movie Basic Instinct, in order to distract Boris Johnson. Let’s be honest, Boris Johnson, would be distracted, by a nun in a habit. Father forgive me. But after this story BROKE, all hell broke loose. There were calls, for the journalist Glenn Owen to lose his Parliamentary pass, which would effectively, have ended his journalistic career. Talk about, shoot the messenger. The poor old Prime Minister caught in the crosshairs, of this drama, had to step in, and denounce, this misogynistic language about Rayner.

This story, played into the narrative, that parliament, and in particular Tory MPs, are riven, with misogyny. Which is why much of the press, hoovered this story up, with glee. Don't let the truth, get in the way, of a good story. Even the mail on Sunday’s editor, appeared to be in hot water, after being summoned to the Commons, by the speaker Lindsay Hoyle.

Now Hoyle, is a man I admire and he’s widely liked, and respected, among MPs. He was a welcome replacement, to the Brexit-hating, bully John Bercow, a man, who thinks he’s a great poet and orator, but is more Oscar Pistorius, than Oscar Wilde.

But on this occasion, Speaker Hoyle was wrong, to demand a meeting. First of all, no independent journalistic outfit, should be slavishly, answerable, to the house of commons, speaker. I think you'll find, our free, PRESS, is a separate department, from our legislature, and I don't want, our hard-working hacks, second guessing, whether their journalism, will please, the Parliamentary authorities. In fact, the more it DISPLEASES them, the better. Well done to the mail on Sunday, for declining the invitation. Now Keir Starmer is no doubt a nice man, fairly decent and clearly smart, but in my view, his political judgement, is poor.

He always seems, to be on the wrong side of the argument, and back the wrong HORSE. I’m not talking about Angela Rayner by the way, calm down. Starmer campaigned, for Jeremy Corbyn Vladimir Putin's, bosom buddy, to be prime minister.

I don't think Labour, can win with this guy in charge. And I want a strong Labour Party, and a great leader. Someone far more gifted, than the lawyerly Keir Starmer. It could be, the rather more earthy, Angela Rayner. She IS an impressive person, who left school at sixteen, with few prospects, and a baby in tow. Despite those huge, challenges, including single motherhood, she has reached the upper echelons, of British politics. She's a colourful and entertaining character, who has outshone Starmer, when looking after Prime Ministers’ Questions, and she managed to get MORE jobs not fewer, when Starmer, tried to get rid of her, during a reshuffle.

Another example, of Starmer’s political, club foot. But SHE is gaffe prone too. Firstly, by denouncing Conservative MPs as scum, something most of the British public, found to be deeply offensive language. And more recently, by concealing her presence, at the beergate party, in Durham. Why was she so reluctant, to admit she was there? I hope it wasn't because, saying she WAS, would be, an admission, that they, broke the rules. Surely not. This time, props to the Mail newspaper, for uncovering Rayner’s presence, at the Durham bash, in spite of party DENIALS, by studying her and Labour’s social media posts.

Painstaking, forensic journalism, all in the nation, public interest. Starmer and Rayner, are in my view the worst double act, since Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

A real marriage, made in hell.

They’ve overlooked, the cost of living crisis, caused by lockdowns (which they backed), in order to obsess, over partygate. But it seems, THEY like a party, just as MUCH. Which takes me, to Angela Rayner's, ginger growler.

It’s the part of her anatomy, whose bark appears, to be worse, than its bite. Yes, she condemned the mail on Sunday, for printing this scoop. She said this story coarsens, cheapens and debases our politics’.

Except that she acknowledged, this so called growler strategy, in a political podcast in January. In it, Rayner laughed about the Basic Instinct comparisons, joking that it had sparked, an internet meme, of her crossing and uncrossing her legs. And writing in the paper today, the Mail On Sunday’s erstwhile, political columninst Dan Hodges, has identified four MPs, who heard Rayner, telling this story and jokingly referring, to her ginger growler – her words not mine – all of this happened we are told, on the terrace outside parliament.

Even the pigeons were shocked. I’m so confused – she’s outraged, by a sexist and offensive story, except that it seems, it was her story and her language. And, a party spokeswoman, said this week, the story was ‘categorically untrue’ and ‘made up’. A week of Labour lies. Now it’s clear, that there is a culture of misogyny of the House of Commons, and becoming an MP, should be as female friendly, as it is male. But this confected row, constructed on a bed of untruths, deflection and hypocrisy, is the worst kind of fake news. This week Labour have relinquished the moral highground, with partygate hypocrisy, and growlergate lies. I’ve questioned Boris Johnson's, fitness for office, and I've given him pelters, for two years, of damaging and needless lockdowns. But do you really want these two in charge?

That's a question, that will be praying on the minds of voters, at the local elections on Thursday, and at the next general election, which I believe, will be sooner rather than later.

It's been a week of own goals for labour, and that’s after a porn-watching Tory MP, loses his seat – that takes some doing. All the focus has been on Rayner’s seat instead. I believe that the ramifications of this will be lasting. All of Keir Starmer’s pious hand-wringing over partygate now really sticks in the craw, and his holier than thou sermons about doing the right thing, will fall on deaf ears. The halo has slipped for the Labour Party, and they have vacated the moral highground. The eager beavers, in her majesty’s opposition, have muffed this right up. And Rayner’s had a howler with her growler, and it couldn’t be fouler.