By Ben Kerrigan-
Boris Johnson has said he will not apologize for remarks linking Keir Starmer to the failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile, a minister has said, as Conservative MPs called on the prime minister to back down after protesters shouted abuse at the Labour leader on Monday.
Mps have called for the prime minister to retract the statement he made in the House of Commons last week, which has been clarified to have implied Starmer taking responsibility over the functions of the CPS over which he presided.
Chris Philp, the digital minister, said the comment that Starmer had failed to prosecute the prolific child sex offender was “not incorrect” but said the prime minister had clarified he did not mean Starmer took the decision when he led the CPS.
Keir Starmer was bundled into a police car after being heckled by protesters as he walked near the Houses of Parliament.
“The first comments in the house on the previous Monday were capable of being misconstrued and that is why it is important and right that a couple of days later that Boris Johnson, the prime minister, did clarify that he was not suggesting at any time that Keir Starmer had personal responsibility for the case,” he told BBC Breakfast. “But he obviously did have responsibility for the conduct of the CPS.
“I don’t think there is any way you can reasonably suggest that the comments on Keir Starmer’s overall responsibility for the CPS in any way provoked the very unseemly and totally unacceptable harassment we saw last night.”
A Number 10 source said that the prime minister did not intend to go further than his condemnation of the abuse of Starmer.
Johnson’s initial comments did not suggest Starmer had taken institutional responsibility, but said as director of public prosecutions he “spent more time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile”.
It has been established that Starmer would not have had knowledge about decisions taking at a much lower level in the heirachichal structure of the Crown Prosecution Service when he was in charge, but ids of Johnson say the criticism was about ultimate responsibility.
Bosses at the top of an organization have discretion to be made aware of all activities taking place underneath them. But it was the fact the prime minister pulled out that card in response to a continuous onslaught from Starmer about partygate, that led to the storm over it. The potential implications of the comment is far reaching too, but the prime minister’s suggestion being that the same standard of responsibility he is being held to should apply to Starmer.
On Monday, protesters surrounding Keir Starmer, accusing him of being a paedophile, in what has been seen to be consequence of the prime minister’s earlier comments in parliament.
Police were forced to intervene due to serious concerns for Sir Keir’s safety when he was confronted by a group of anti-vaxxers outside Parliament on Monday evening.
Protesters screamed “paedophile” and falsely accusing Sir Keir of “protecting paedophiles”. One man shouted: “Were you protecting Jimmy Savile?”
Police officers encircled the Labour leader, pushing back the demonstrators, and placed him in the back of a police car, which sped away.
Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who was with Sir Keir during the incident, was separated from his leader and escorted back to Parliament by officers.
The protesters had gathered to protest vaccines and coronavirus restrictions, billed as a “UK Freedom Convoy”.
Minister Brandon Lewis later said the abuse by the protesters aimed at Sir Keir was “completely unacceptable” but insisted the PM’s comments were not to blame. Lewis also suggested that the fact Starmer at the time of the Saville revelations apologized for the CPS failing, implied a failing as the then head of the CPS.
The prime minister claimed in the House of Commons during the debate on Sue Gray’s partygate report that Sir Keir had failed to prosecute paedophile Savile.
“That’s no excuse for people to behave the way they did last night and we shouldn’t give them that excuse either,” he added.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “Shortly after 5.10pm on Monday, 7 February, a man who had been surrounded by a group of protesters near to New Scotland Yard, was taken away from the scene by a police car.
“A man and a woman were arrested at the scene for assault of an emergency worker after a traffic cone was thrown at a police officer. They have been taken into custody.”