Speaker rebukes Boris Johnson for remarks about
Starmer and Savile
Lindsay Hoyle criticises PM’s comments but does not
demand apology, after former Tory chief whip condemned the ‘smear’
Jessica
Elgot and Niamh McIntyre
Tue 1 Feb
2022 23.40 GMT
The Commons
Speaker has rebuked Boris Johnson for making a false insinuation that Keir
Starmer refused to prosecute the serial sex offender Jimmy Savile, but stopped
short of demanding an apology.
Lindsay
Hoyle’s intervention came after the Tory former chief whip Julian Smith became
the most senior Conservative to urge Johnson to withdraw the insinuation about
Starmer.
After
Starmer responded in the Commons to Sue Gray’s report on alleged Covid
rule-breaking in Downing Street, Johnson called him “a former director of
public prosecutions, who spent more time prosecuting journalists and failing to
prosecute Jimmy Savile”.
Smith, the
former Conservative Northern Ireland secretary and chief whip, said Johnson’s
comments about the child sexual abuser were unacceptable. The claim has been
promoted by far-right conspiracist Facebook groups.
“The smear
made against Keir Starmer relating to Jimmy Savile yesterday is wrong and
cannot be defended,” he tweeted. “It should be withdrawn. False and baseless
personal slurs are dangerous, corrode trust and can’t just be accepted as part
of the cut and thrust of parliamentary debate.”
After a
point of order by the Labour MP Chris Matheson on Tuesday, Hoyle said he was
disappointed about the state of the discourse. “I am far from satisfied that
the comments in question were appropriate on this occasion,” he said. “I want
to see more compassionate, reasonable politics in this house and these sort of
comments can only inflame opinions.”
Despite the
reaction from members of his own party, Johnson refused to backtrack on Tuesday
night. Speaking to the Sun, the prime minister said: “As far I’m aware, it’s
fairly accurate.”
Two cabinet
ministers have defended Johnson’s decision to use the false claim in the
Commons but one admitted they could not substantiate it.
The deputy
prime minister, Dominic Raab, said it was part of the “cut and thrust of
parliamentary debates and exchanges” but said he was not prepared to repeat the
allegation.
“I don’t
have the facts to verify this … I don’t have the facts to justify that. I can’t
substantiate that claim,” Raab told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The culture
secretary, Nadine Dorries, told Channel 4 News: “I have no idea of the
background of Keir Starmer … The prime minister tells the truth.”
Another
Conservative MP, Bob Neil, tweeted that he agreed with Smith. “This suggestion
is baseless and unworthy, even in the cut and thrust of political debate,” he
said on Tuesday night. “There are plenty of reasons to attack [Keir Starmer]
and Labour on their policies but not a false premise. Let’s at least fight out
politics cleanly.”
Speaking on
Sky News, the Labour leader said it was clear Tory MPs were uncomfortable with
the false claim. “It’s a ridiculous slur peddled by rightwing trolls … I saw
the faces of the Conservative MPs, the disgust on their faces that their prime
minister was debasing himself by sinking so low in the chamber was clear,” he
said.
“He’d been
advised not to do it because it’s obviously not true, but he does it because he
doesn’t understand what honesty and integrity means. Many of them expressed
that to me, disgust at their prime minister for debasing himself in the House
of Commons instead of acting with the contrition and the integrity that he
should have shown yesterday.
“He does
what he always does, which is to try to drag everybody into the gutter with
him. One thing we know about this prime minister is everybody who has ever come
into contact with him always gets damaged in the process.”
Nazir
Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor for the north-west of England, said
Johnson’s reference to Savile was “a disgrace to parliament and office of prime
minister”.
Johnson’s
insinuation in parliament that Starmer personally failed to charge Savile
echoes claims made by online conspiracy theorists.
The
factchecking organisation Full Fact looked into the claim in June 2020. It
found: “Mr Starmer was head of the [Crown Prosecution Service] when the
decision was made not to prosecute Savile but he was not the reviewing lawyer
for the case.”
The first
popular Facebook post containing the claim was shared by a page called Recusant
Nine. The post claims Starmer “decided there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to
charge Savile”. It has been shared 2,400 times, and was copied and pasted by a
network of pro-Brexit Facebook pages shortly after it was posted in April 2020.
Starmer
commissioned an investigation into the CPS decision not to prosecute Savile,
and later apologised for “errors of judgment” made by police officers and the
CPS prosecutor on the case. The investigation did not suggest Starmer was
personally involved in the decisions made.
In 2007 and
2008, the police investigated complaints about Savile engaging in sexual
behaviour with young girls. He was interviewed under caution in October 2009
but not charged with any offence.
Since his
death in 2011 it has emerged that he sexually abused hundreds of children and
women at locations including hospitals, schools and the BBC.
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