‘Just like Trump!’ Boris Johnson attacked by Guy Verhofstadt over Keir Starmer row

Chris Philp responds to video of Keir Starmer mobbing

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The Prime Minister caused fresh controversy last week by accusing Labour leader Sir Keir of failing to prosecute notorious paedophile Jimmy Savile while head of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Downing Street has made it clear that Mr Johnson does not plan to apologise but he is likely to face renewed calls to do so when he fields questions from MPs on Wednesday.

Critics have said the jibe is completely unfounded and have blamed the remark for anti-Covid restriction demonstrators targeting Sir Keir on Monday outside Parliament.

Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt accused the Prime Minister of acting like former US President Donald Trump.

He blasted: “Neither Trump, nor Johnson are afraid to whip up a mob for their own survival.

“Trump won’t apologise for Capitol Hill, nor Johnson for Starmer.

“Just like the Republicans, the Tory Party can barely defend it, but do.. undermining our liberal-democratic institutions!”

Health Secretary Sajid Javid, speaking on a visit to east London on Tuesday, said the images of the opposition leader being bundled into a police car to be escorted away from protesters were “completely disgraceful”.

But the Cabinet minister, who has previously distanced himself from the PM’s Savile comments, said “the people that are to blame are the protesters themselves” rather than Mr Johnson.

Jacob Rees-Mogg said he did not recollect feeding the Prime Minister the controversial jibe about Sir Keir Starmer failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile while he was director of public prosecutions.

The Sunday Times reported that Mr Rees-Mogg, who has been moved from Commons Leader to the newly minted position of Brexit opportunities minister in the Prime Minister’s mini-reshuffle, “originally whispered” the idea of using the attack to Mr Johnson in the House of Commons last week.

But the Cabinet minister said that while he “mentioned the point about journalists”, he was not close enough to Mr Johnson to “feed him lines”.

During an interview with Conservative Home’s The Moggcast, Mr Rees-Mogg was asked about the suggestion that he was the person who initially handed the PM the idea for the Savile remark.

He said: “That isn’t my recollection.

“What was going on at the time was a very noisy chamber and people were shouting things out.

“I think it came from behind us, but it seemed to me a perfectly fair point to use.”

Pressed on whether he was sure it did not come from him, the senior Tory replied: “I certainly mentioned the point about journalists in the back and forth across the chamber, but I think it came from behind both of us.

“I wasn’t sitting next to the Prime Minister, so I wasn’t in a particularly good position to be feeding him lines.”

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At least six Tory MPs – including one former Cabinet minister – have called for Mr Johnson to formally apologise for the remarks. His long-standing ally Munira Mirza quit as head of policy at No 10 last week in protest at his refusal to withdraw what she called a “scurrilous accusation”.

Although Sir Keir was head of the Crown Prosecution Service in 2009 when a decision was taken not to prosecute Savile, he had no personal involvement in the deliberations.

However, supporters of the Prime Minister argue that they are entitled to hold him to account for the failings of the organisation.

Mr Rees-Mogg, during the podcast interview – which was recorded on Monday, before his ministerial job change – likened the situation with Sir Keir to the Crichel Down affair, in which a minister resigned after taking responsibility for actions taken by civil servants.

“You are responsible for what goes on within your department, even if you don’t know about it at the point at which it takes place,” Mr Rees-Mogg said.

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