Kwarteng: PM’s Savile slur against Starmer was ‘perfectly reasonable’

Boris Johnson’s attacks on Sir Keir Starmer over not prosecuting Jimmy Savile were “perfectly reasonable”, according to business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.

Kwarteng said “Sir Keir himself apologised on behalf of [the Crown Prosecution Service]” for not charging the UK’s most notorious sex offender and that “the fact that he apologised suggests that he does, at some level, bear some responsibility”.

Johnson made the claim on Monday that Starmer spent his time as director of public prosecutions “not prosecuting Jimmy Savile”, despite the fact that he did not work on the case in 2009.

Starmer said Johnson’s accusation was a “ridiculous slur peddled by right-wing trolls” and accused the PM of peddling “conspiracy theories of violent fascists”.

The claim sparked a large backlash from many Tory backbenchers and led to the resignation of Number 10 policy chief, and long-time ally, Munira Mirza.

Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid both refused to defend the comments this week.

The Prime Minister slightly stepped back from his original claim on Friday and said Starmer “had nothing to do personally with those decisions” and “I was making a point about his responsibility for the organisation as a whole”.

Starmer apologised in 2013 on behalf of the CPS for not prosecuting Savile.

“Sir Keir himself apologised on behalf of the organisation he led about the fact that they failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile. So the fact that he apologised suggests that he does, at some level, bear some responsibility,” Kwarteng told Sky News.

“Sir Keir apologised and so that’s something that was absolutely in scope. I’m not saying that he had personal blame, he didn’t. We’ve been very clear about that and the prime minister clarified that position as well.

“But I think in the cut and thrust of debate, when people are talking about leadership and accountability, bringing up something that Sir Keir himself apologised for seems reasonable.”