Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries has struggled to defend Boris Johnson after the prime minister attempted to distract from the partygate controversy by making a false attack on Keir Starmer.
Johnson faced a huge backlash after he accused the Labour leader of failing to prosecute disgraced entertainer Jimmy Savile when he was head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
The PM made the comments in the House of Commons as he hit back at Labour criticism over the Sue Gray report.
A fact-check by the Reuters news agency in October last year concluded: “There is no evidence to suggest Sir Keir Starmer, then (director of public prosecutions) DPP of the CPS, was directly involved in the decision not to prosecute Jimmy Savile.”
It spells out how the claim gained traction online but that “the suggestion of a link between the handling of the cases and Starmer is baseless”.
On Monday, Nazir Afzal, a former chief Crown prosecutor for the North West, said Johnson’s reference to Savile was “a disgrace to parliament and office of prime minister”.
And it fell on Dorries, culture secretary under Johnson, to defend the PM’s comment in a series of media interviews.
When appearing on Channel 4 News, she was questioned by presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy about what he described as “fake news” and an “old meme repeated by conspiracy theorists”.
Dorries was left only saying “the prime minister tells the truth”.
Here’s the full exchange:
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: One of the things the prime minister said today in the House of Commons that was basically untrue – and clearly untrue – was the allegation that Keir Starmer was responsible for not prosecuting Jimmy Savile. How can you have a prime minister just repeating fake news like that?”
Nadine Dorries: I have no idea of the background of Keir Starmer and I know that he ...
KGM: Well, it’s not true and the prime minister repeated it. It’s an old meme repeated by conspiracy theorists.
ND: Well, you know, there were things Keir Starmer said that someone who is the former director of public prosecutions shouldn’t have said at the dispatch box. He shouldn’t have pre-judged what a Met investigation is going to find.
KGM: Boris Johnson said something that was untrue. He misled the house today.
ND: I don’t believe that was the case.
KGM: What, are you saying Keir Starmer was responsible for not prosecuting ...
ND: I don’t know, I don’t know the details.
KGM: That’s what the prime minister said.
ND: I’ll have to take your word for it.
KGM: He shouldn’t have said it, should he?
ND: I think there are lots of things that Keir Starmer shouldn’t have said.
KGM: Well, there are clearly things that he (Johnson) said that are not true.
ND: The prime minister tells the truth.
KGM: Now whether they were deliberate lies or not has yet to be established ... but he’s clearly said things to the house that were not true.
ND: The prime minister tells the truth.
Watch full interview here.
It was just one in a number of widely-shared interviews conducted by Dorries.
In 2020, fact checking charity Full Fact looked into the claim that Sir Keir had stopped Savile being charged in 2009.
Full Fact said Starmer was head of the CPS when the decision not to prosecute Savile was made on the grounds of “insufficient evidence”, adding: “The allegations against Savile were dealt with by local police and a reviewing lawyer for the CPS.
“A later investigation criticised the actions of both the CPS and the police in their handling of the situation.
“It did not suggest that Mr Starmer was personally involved in the decisions made.”
The independent fact-checking organisation concluded: “Mr Starmer was head of the CPS when the decision was made not to prosecute Savile but he was not the reviewing lawyer for the case.
“An official investigation commissioned later by Starmer criticised both prosecutors and police for their handling of the allegations.”
Savile died in 2011 aged 84 having never been brought to justice for his crimes.
He is now believed to be one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.
A 2016 report into his abuse found staff at the BBC missed numerous opportunities to stop him.