Boris Johnson has suffered another devastating blow after the long-serving head of policy at Downing Street resigned over his slur against Keir Starmer over child abuser Jimmy Savile.
Munira Mirza, a close adviser of Johnson for the last 14 years, quit dramatically as the Prime Minister attempted to row back on his repeated false claim that Starmer failed to pursue paedophile Savile while Director of Public Prosecutions.
According to the Spectator magazine the Prime Minister’s knowingly false attack on Starmer, while cornered in the Commons on the Sue Gray report on lockdown parties in Downing Street, was the final straw for her.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mirza wrote: “I believe it was wrong for you to imply this week that Keir Starmer was personally responsible for allowing Jimmy Savile to escape justice."
She added: "There was no fair or reasonable basis for that assertion. This was not the usual cut and thrust of politics; it was an inappropriate and partisan reference to a horrendous case of child sex abuse. You tried to clarify your position today but, despite my urging, you did not apologise for the misleading impression you gave.”
The resignation will be a devastating blow to Johnson who is fighting for his political survival in Downing Street against a steady drumbeat of calls from Tory MPs for him to quit.
Earlier on Thursday the Prime Minister sought to “clarify” his false claim against Starmer in an unusual u-turn after twice doubling down on the far-right conspiracy theory against the Labour leader.
Johnson said he wanted to be clear on the issue because “a lot of people have got very hot under the collar.”
He said: “Let’s be absolutely clear, I’m talking not about the Leader of the Opposition’s personal record when he was DPP and I totally understand that he had nothing to do personally with those decisions. I was making a point about his responsibility for the organisation as a whole.
The turnaround came after senior Tories expressed disgust at the Prime Minister’s desperate tactics but it was not enough for Mirza who was reckoned to be one his most loyal members of staff.
In her resignation letter she praised him as “a man of extraordinary abilities with a unique talent for connecting with people.”
But she added: “You are a better man than many of your detractors will ever understand which is why it is so desperately sad that you let yourself down by making a scurrilous accusation against the Leader of the Opposition.”
Johnson boasted in a newspaper interview on Thursday that he has no plans to quit as Prime Minister, claiming he still has a ‘lot to do’ despite a host of Tories calling for him to go over the partygate scandal.
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