LABOUR leader Keir Starmer has blamed prime minister Boris Johnson’s slur about Jimmy Savile for inciting a mob that accosted him outside parliament on Monday (7), according to a media report.
In an interview with the Times, Starmer said he had never before been accused in public of being a ‘paedophile protector’ before Johnson's remark.
"Johnson had used a deliberate slur without any basis in fact. The PM knew exactly what he was doing. It is a conspiracy theory of violent fascists that has been doing the rounds for some time," Starmer told the Times.
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British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer gets in a police car as protesters surround him shouting slogans in London, Britain February 7, 2022, in this still image obtained from social media video on February 8, 2022. Courtesy of Conor Noon/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.
Before being escorted into a police car, some of the protesters can be heard shouting "Traitor!" and "Were you protecting Jimmy Savile?" at him.
Though Johnson refused to apologise for the remark, he has since claimed that he was not referring to Starmer’s personal record at the Crown Prosecution Service.
Starmer told the Times: “I have never been called a paedophile protector before. That happened [on Monday] for the first time in my life. If others want to argue that this is unconnected with precisely what the PM said one week before then let them make that case. But they’ll never persuade me that there is no link.”
He reiterated that he had no involvement in the decision not to prosecute Savile. He said: “I knew nothing about the decision. When Savile died I instigated a review to audit whether any cases had come across the desk of any CPS officers and discovered at that stage decisions had been made.”
Starmer added: “It’s not about me, it’s the way we conduct our politics. I don’t want to see us go down the route that this potentially takes us.”
Following the barracking of Starmer, Johnson tweeted that the “behaviour directed” at the Labour leader was “absolutely disgraceful”.
The Labour leader on Thursday (10) met the Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels to discuss Ukraine.
In the Times interview, before the meeting, Starmer distanced himself from his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn – a long-term Nato sceptic. He criticised Corbyn for refusing to accept that Russia was responsible for the Salisbury poisonings.
Bob Blackman MP speaks during the event