Boris Johnson is facing furious calls to apologise for the Jimmy Savile slur on Keir Starmer after the Labour leader was set upon by a mob of protestors.
Starmer had to be bundled into a police car to protect him from a Westminster mob of anti-vaxers who accused him of protecting the paedophile Jimmy Savile.
Starmer was leaving Westminster with Shadow Justice Secretary David Lammy when he was surrounded by anti-vaxxers shouting “traitor” and accusing him of “protecting Jimmy Savile”.
In one clip of the incident, protestors could be heard swearing and bellowing “were you protecting Jimmy Savile” before police stepped in and walked Starmer to the safety of a waiting police car.
MPs from all sides angrily rounded on Johnson and accused him of whipping up political poison after the Prime Minister falsely claimed in the Commons that Starmer failed to prosecute Savile while he was director of public prosecutions.
The Prime Minister later “clarified” the fake claim but his failure to deliver an apology led directly to the resignation of two senior advisers in Downing Street.
Lammy said: “It is no surprise the conspiracy theorist thugs who harassed Keir Starmer and I repeated slurs we heard from Boris Johnson last week at the despatch box. Intimidation, harassment and lies have no place in our democracy. And they won’t ever stop me doing my job.”
Boris Johnson tweeted later that the behaviour “directed at the leader of the opposition tonight is absolutely disgraceful” but once again stopped short of the apology which has been demanded of him,
Former Tory chief whip Julian Smith, who has called on Johnson to apologise, described the events as appalling.
He said: “It is really important for our democracy and for his security that the false Savile slurs made against him are withdrawn in full.”
Amid calls for Johnson to make a despatch box apology Tory MP Rob Largan said: “Words matter. What we say and how we say it echoes out far beyond Parliament. It can have serious real world consequences. Elected representatives have a responsibility to lower the temperature of debate, not add fuel to the fire.”
The Labour party was furious at the incident though Starmer was unharmed and escorted back to his office within minutes.
A Labour source said: “Boris Johnson and his cabinet chose to lie down with the dogs – and now the whole lot of them are covered in fleas.”
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