Leonie Mellinger visited Labour’s London office on Christmas Eve in 2020, before travelling to Brighton, when the capital was under Tier 4 regulations and Brighton was in Tier 3. Sir Keir Starmer’s voice coach travelled between Covid tiers to visit the prime minister during lockdown, it has emerged. Leonie Mellinger visited Labour’s London office on Christmas Eve in 2020, when the capital was under Tier 4 regulations, a new book has revealed. The visit came as Sir Keir, then Labour leader, gave a statement on Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.

Ms Mellinger, an actress and communications skills coach, then posted a photograph of an empty train carriage on the same day with the caption “going home”, followed by another three days later showing Brighton Beach, The Telegraph reported. At the time, Brighton was under Tier 3 restrictions, and the Conservatives have said Sir Keir and Ms Mellinger may have broken the rules. They have both denied wrongdoing, and a Labour spokesman said: “This is just more desperate mudslinging from the Conservatives who partied their way through lockdown, had two leaders fined for breaking covid laws and are now led by Kemi Badenoch who used her first interview in the job to call partygate ‘overblown’.

“This was a televised press conference to respond to the Brexit deal and the rules were followed.”. Tier four rules at the time stated: “Residents in Tiers 1 to 3 should not enter Tier 4 areas.”. Ms Mellinger took a selfie at Labour HQ on Christmas Eve, the same afternoon Sir Keir delivered an 11-minute address on Brexit. At 6.00pm the same day, she shared a photograph on Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, captioned “Christmas Eve” and “going home”, according to The Telegraph.

Speaking to the book’s authors, Ms Mellinger said she used “key worker” status to justify the trip to Labour HQ. And, asked whether he broke lockdown rules at the end of a press conference on Monday, Sir Keir said “absolutely not” and “all rules were followed” before continuing to walk off stage. A Tory spokesman said: “The Prime Minister ran away from questions about an alleged lockdown breach by his ‘key worker’ acting coach. What is he hiding?”.

Key worker status for those working in local and national government at the time only included “those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the Covid-19 response [and] essential public services”, according to government guidance. Tory MP Richard Holden has written to the PM asking him to say whether he thinks it was a breach of the law, as London and the South East were under regional restrictions at the time, and asking him to appoint an independent investigator.

Speaking to GB News on Tuesday, health minister Karin Smyth defended the PM, adding that it was “a working event” - a claim similar to one used by Mr Johnson as he defended his attendance at a “BYOB” garden party for Downing Street staff. Ms Smyth said: “My understanding is…Keir was working at that time, preparing for interviews and so on in the run up to, I believe it's 2020, wasn't it?.

“So, the run up to those Brexit discussions and leaving and interviews for that, and that was a working event at the time when we know that what the Tories were doing, partying, that's well documented. “It's a sad and sorry tale of that time and I think this is more mudslinging on their behalf.”. In the book, Ms Mellinger, who has acted alongside Sir Patrick Stewart at the Royal Shakespeare Company, described her working relationship with Sir Keir and how she became a close confidant of the then Labour leader.