the times | Thursday February 3 2022 2GM 9News
Boris Johnson has been accused of
“Trumpian” behaviour after he refused
to withdraw a false claim about Sir Keir
Starmer and Jimmy Savile.
The prime minister doubled down on
comments he made on Monday, when
he blamed Starmer, a former director of
public prosecutions, for the failure to
prosecute the paedophile. The conspir-
acy theory has been widely shared on
far-right internet forums in recent
years, but has been disproved by mul-
tiple fact-checking organisations.
At prime minister’s questions yester-
day, Starmer accused Johnson of rely-
ing on the arguments of “violent fas-
cists” to score “cheap political points” as
the Labour leader urged Tory back-
benchers to “restore some dignity” to
the Conservative Party.
“Theirs is the party of Winston
Churchill. Our parties stood together
as we defeated fascism in Europe,” he
said. “Now their leader stands in the
House of Commons parroting the con-
spiracy theories of violent fascists. It is
time to restore some dignity.”
To some cheers from the Tory
benches, Johnson said he stood by his
remarks, which were made in the Com-
mons under parliamentary privilege,
meaning he is immune from libel or
defamation claims. “I don’t want to
make heavy weather of this but I am
informed that in 2013 he apologised
and took full responsibility for what
had happened on his watch,” Johnson
said. “That was the right thing to do.”
Johnson was referring to a highly
critical report commissioned by Starm-
er that highlighted the failure of prose-
cutors in Sussex to take action against
Savile in 2009. In the report, Starmer
apologised for the failure of the Crown
Prosecution Service to press charges,
even though he was not involved in the
case at the time. Savile, 84, died in 2011
having never faced justice.
Many Tory MPs believe that the
claim about Savile is part of a “dead cat”
strategy by Johnson to deflect from
claims about parties in No 10. The term
was coined by Sir Lynton Crosby, the
election strategist whom Johnson is
consulting again. It refers to saying
something provocative to distract from
another issue.
Members of the 40-strong One
Nation group of Tory MPs accused
Johnson of behaving like a “pound-
shop Donald Trump” and suggested
that more letters of no confidence in
the prime minister would soon go in.
One member said: “There is a wide-
spread feeling that this broke any kind
of convention. In No 10 they’ll think the
dead cat [strategy] worked. But it’s
another piece of corrosion.”
Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the de-
fence select committee, said: “Who ad-
vised the prime minister to say this?
We’re better than this.” Simon Hoare,
chairman of the Northern Ireland
affairs select committee, said the “false
allegation should be withdrawn”.
Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scot-
tish National Party, said: “The Jimmy
Savile comments about Keir Starmer
were utterly despicable. [It is] appalling
that the holder of the office of prime
minister is behaving in that fake news,
Trumpian manner.”Johnson in
danger of
£12,000 fine
Henry ZeffmanThe prime minister could be fined more
than £12,000 if he is found to have
breached his own coronavirus laws,
according to a senior lawyer.
Adam Wagner, a barrister and expert
on Covid regulations, said that the size
of fixed penalty notices increased with
each offence, potentially landing Boris
Johnson, who denies wrongdoing, with
a hefty fine.
At least 6 of the 12 events referred to
the Metropolitan Police by Sue Gray,
the senior civil servant investigating
allegations of lockdown breaches, were
either attended by Johnson or are
linked to him.
Wagner estimated that Johnson
could face a fine of £100 for an event in
the Downing Street garden on May 20,
2020, which he has admitted attending.
He said that the fine for the second
event, a celebration of his birthday on
June 19, 2020, would be £200, with sub-
sequent penalties rising further.
Lord Sedwill, who was then the
cabinet secretary, is said to have attend-
ed a gathering on June 18, 2020, which
is now under police investigation.
About 20 people held a leaving party
for a private secretary, The Daily Tele-
graph said.talkative mimic. He managed to
make Bell laugh, even though the
Newcastle-under-Lyme MP has
been a bold critic of Johnson.
Maybe the whips have realised
that menacing backbenchers is
counter-productive. Tickle and
goose them. Flutter the eyelashes.
Burns is good at that.
The bawling of “more!” from
Tory backbenchers was no doubt
choreographed. Jonathan Gullis
(C, Stoke North) yowled like a
mating fox and was told to be quiet
by Hoyle, “otherwise I will ring
your mother”. A moment of comic
relief. There was further laughter
to come. Starmer compared
Johnson and (the absent) Rishi
Sunak to Thelma and Louise, as in
the film about a duo who go over a
cliff together. This analogy was not
new. Little that Starmer says is.
Johnson retorted that the
Labour leader and his deputy,
Angela Rayner, were Dick
Dastardly and Muttley. That
worked better because it sounded
more spontaneous.
Last, back to the Dromey
tributes. Johnson recalled that
some years ago Dromey rescued a
British family who were trudging
along a Greek road “footsore,
bedraggled and sunburnt with the
children on the verge of mutiny”.
At this he added ruefully, “an
experience I understand”.
The family in question, we
learnt, had been the Johnsons.News
up the pressure over parties
PM ‘acting like a pound-shop
Trump’ over Savile allegation
George Grylls Political Reporter
Steven SwinfordJESSICA TAYLOR/UK PARLIAMENTBehind the story
England and Wales do
not require
complainants to press
charges – they can
decide that there is
sufficient evidence to
proceed without an
alleged victim’s
approval.
However, doing so
is difficult and cases
are often dropped on
the grounds of one of
the CPS’s
fundamental criteria:
a reasonable chance
of gaining a
conviction.
Four years after the
decision not to pursue
the claims against
Savile – and two years
after his death – the
scale the celebrity’s
offending was
revealed: he is
understood to have
raped at least 34
women and girls and
sexually assaulted 450
others, including
children as young as
eight.
At the time of the
decision not to
prosecute, Starmer
oversaw more than
8,200 staff, including
2,700 prosecutors.
Charging decisions
were taken by senior
staff in each of the 42
CPS areas, all headed
by chief crown
prosecutors.
Johnson’s allies said
that his argument was
justified given that
Labour has a long
track record of trying
to pin responsibility
for organisational
failings on ministers
even if they were
unaware or
uninvolved in the
problems.
Around the time of
the decision on Savile,
the CPS advised
annually on more
than 532,000 pre-
charge decisions,
completed about
928,000 cases in
magistrates’ courts
and nearly 104,000 in
the crown courts.
“There is no reason
why Keir Starmer
would have become
involved” in the Savile
decision, Lord
Macdonald of River
Glaven, the preceding
DPP, told The Times.
He said that CPS
records show that
Starmer “played no
role in the decision
making”.Fair criticism or
ridiculous slur?
S
ir Keir Starmer
“spent most of
his time [as
director of
public
prosecutions]...
failing to prosecute
Jimmy Savile”, Boris
Johnson bellowed in
the Commons on
Monday (Jonathan
Ames and Oliver
Wright write).
The claim, the
Labour leader
retorted, was a
“ridiculous slur” and,
according to some
Tory MPs, an
indecent jibe not
befitting a prime
minister.
But what is the
truth?
There is no
evidence Starmer
knew of Savile’s
crimes or that he was
directly responsible
for the decision by the
Crown Prosecution
Service not to press
charges.
Yet, after a 2013
review into the
handling of the case,
Starmer apologised
and said he took full
responsibility for the
failings. As head of
the organisation, he
had little choice.
Writing on the
Conservative Home
website, the former
Tory MP Paul
Goodman said: “If
Starmer wasn’t guilty
of knowing about
Savile’s crimes at the
time, why the
apology? Because, as
director of public
prosecutions (DPP),
he was responsible for
the CPS: that’s why he
had the authority to
commission the
inquiry.”
Although he may
not have borne direct
responsibility, the
circumstances are
complicated, and may
add credence to the
prime minister’s
claim.
According to Red
Knight, Lord
Ashcroft’s 2021
biography of Starmer,
the Labour leader
was, as head of theCPS, ultimately
responsible for the
decision not to
prosecute Savile.
“There is no doubt
that this failure
occurred on his
watch,” he concludes.
The theory has
been repeated on
right-wing websites
and social media. The
website Politicalite
has referred to
Starmer as an
“establishment
stooge” who “helped
Britain’s most vile
celebrity paedophile
evade justice”.
Although Alison
Levitt QC, who
undertook a 2013
inquiry into the case,
found that Starmer
was not directly
involved in the
charging decision, she
complained that CPS
records of the case
had been deleted
from the system and
could not be
retrieved. Levitt also
found that CPS
lawyers had failed by
not prosecuting
Savile.
However, many
others — including
Starmer’s predecessor
as DPP — argue that
holding him
responsible for
individual charging
decisions is grossly
unfair.
Nearly a year after
Starmer’s
appointment as DPP
in 2008, by Labour’s
attorney-general,
Patricia Scotland QC,
Savile was
interviewed by Surrey
police about
allegations by four
women that the
television presenter
had sexually attacked
them. Two claimed
they were 14 at the
time.
The police referred
the allegations to
lawyers at the CPS’s
local office. The case
was dropped on the
grounds that none of
the alleged victims
would support a
prosecution.
Prosecutors in