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01
Feb 2022
Ripon MP Julian Smith urges Prime Minister to withdraw Jimmy Savile 'slur'
Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith has urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to withdraw a “slur” he made against Sir Keir Starmer yesterday relating to Jimmy Savile.
Mr Johnson accused the Labour leader in the House of Commons of failing to prosecute Savile while he was Director of Public Prosecutions.
He claimed Sir Keir spent his time “prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile”.
The accusation has been described as “false and baseless” by Conservative MP Mr Smith. He said such “baseless personal slurs are dangerous”.
In a tweet this morning, Mr Smith said:
https://twitter.com/JulianSmithUK/status/1488436899215818753
Mr Smith has joined Nazir Afzal, who was assistant chief crown prosecutor in London during the Savile allegations, in condemning the remark.
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Mr Afzal said the accusation was not true and said Sir Keir “had nothing to do with the decisions taken”.
'He drags everybody into the gutter'
The Labour leader was head of the Crown Prosecution Service when the the decision was made not to prosecute Savile in 2009. However, he was not the reviewing lawyer for the case who dealt with the allegations.
Sir Keir later commissioned an investigation into matter, which criticised both prosecutors and police for their handling of the allegations.
In response to the claim by the Prime Minister, the Labour leader told ITV Good Morning Britain:
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