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Feb 2022

Last Updated: 01/02/2022

Politics

Ripon MP Julian Smith urges Prime Minister to withdraw Jimmy Savile 'slur'

by Calvin Robinson

| 01 Feb, 2022

Conservative MP Julian Smith this morning urged Boris Johnson to withdraw a 'slur' he made against Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer relating to Jimmy Savile yesterday. Mr Johnson accused him of 'failing to prosecute' Savile in 2009.

Julian Smith has called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to withdraw his "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:

“The smear made against Keir Starmer relating to Jimmy Saville yesterday is wrong and cannot be defended.

“It should be withdrawn. False and baseless personal slurs are dangerous, corrode trust and can't just be accepted as part of the cut and thrust of parliamentary debate.”

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:

“It’s a slur, it’s untrue, it’s desperate from the Prime Minister.

“I was really struck yesterday in the House at how many Conservative MPs were disgusted at that untruth from the despatch box.

“Of course on our side, people were disgusted. But his own MPs couldn’t believe their Prime Minister had stooped that low.

“He’s degraded the whole office. And this is how he operates. He drags everybody into the gutter with him.

“Everybody he touches, everybody that comes into contact with him is contaminated by this Prime Minister.”

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Ripon MP Julian Smith urges Prime Minister to withdraw Jimmy Savile 'slur'

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'He drags everybody into the gutter'