Boris Johnson has u-turned on his false claim that Keir Starmer failed to prosecute the notorious child abuser Jimmy Savile.
The Prime Minister caused outrage in the Commons on Monday when he gave oxygen to the far-right conspiracy theory that the Labour leader, when he was director of public prosecutions in England, failed to take action against the paedophile.
On Wednesday the Tory leader doubled down on the claim at Prime Minister’s Questions and told journalists he had been ”fairly accurate” despite it being pointed out to him that the conspiracy theory was a far-right slur shared online.
But on a visit to Blackpool on Thursday the Prime Minister retracted the claim and said he wanted to “clarify” what he meant.
The Prime Minister said: “I want to be very clear about this because a lot of people have got very hot under the collar, and I understand why.
“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.
“I want to be very clear about this because a lot of people have got very hot under the collar,” Johnson told broadcasters.
“I’m talking not about the leader of the opposition’s personal record when he was when he was DPP and I totally understand that he had nothing to do personally with those decisions.”
The turn around came after senior Tories expressed disgust at the Prime Minister’s desperate tactics when confronted about the allegations in the Sue Gray report on parties in Downing Street.
With three Tory MPs announcing on Wednesday they have no confidence in the PM, Downing St feared a further loss of support.
Keir Starmer had called on the Conservative party to “restore some dignity” as he accused the Prime Minister of “parroting the conspiracy theories of violent fascists to try and score cheap political points”.
Nicola Sturgeon also compared Johnson to former US president Donald Trump spreading “fake news” and lawyers representing victims of Savile said it was disgraceful to “weaponising their suffering to get out of a political hole”.
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