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Politics
Harry Fletcher
Feb 08, 2022
Keir Starmer bundled into police car after being swarmed by protesters shouting ...
Resistance GB
Boris Johnson faces fresh calls to retract the Jimmy Savile smear he aimed at Sir Keir Starmer after the leader of the opposition was mobbed by protestors outside Parliament.
The Labour leader was subjected to chants about the prolific sex offender and accused of “protecting paedophiles” by an angry crowd with the MP taken into a police car for his protection.
Mr Johnson tweeted that the “behaviour directed” at Starmer was “absolutely disgraceful”, but did not discuss the nature of the abuse or retract his comments linking Starmer with Savile.
It comes after Johnson accused Sir Keir of having “used his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile” while director of public prosecutions (DPP).
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Former Cabinet minister Julian Smith and Sir Roger Gale are two Conservative MPs to demand that the prime minister fully withdraw the slur after the event.
What happened to Keir Starmer tonight outside parliament is appalling. It is really important for our democracy & for his security that the false Savile slurs made against him are withdrawn in full.— Julian Smith MP (@Julian Smith MP) 1644258434
Grim scenes outside Parliament today and disgraceful treatment of Sir Keir Starmer. All Members of Parliament have a right to go about our lawful business without intimidation. This, I fear, is the direct result of the deliberately careless use of language in the Chamber.— Sir Roger Gale MP (@Sir Roger Gale MP) 1644265171
Labour MP Dammy Lammy was also walking with Sir Keir when the incident occurred. He wrote on Twitter: “No surprise the conspiracy theorist thugs who harassed @Keir_Starmer & I repeated slurs we heard from @BorisJohnson last week at the despatch box.
“Intimidation, harassment and lies have no place in our democracy. And they won’t ever stop me doing my job.”
No surprise the conspiracy theorist thugs who harassed @Keir_Starmer & I repeated slurs we heard from @BorisJohnson last week at the despatch box.\n\nIntimidation, harassment and lies have no place in our democracy. And they won\u2019t ever stop me doing my job.pic.twitter.com/Io4JBJoHfQ— David Lammy (@David Lammy) 1644260270
Angry social media users took to Twitter to voice their opinions after the event, blaming the prime minister for the scenes outside parliament – and accusing him of following a “Trump playbook”.
Online. Abuse. Does. Not. Stay. Online.pic.twitter.com/a38YBHtL9a— Carole Cadwalladr (@Carole Cadwalladr) 1644264158
Boris Johnson and his cabal have systematically legitimised and whipped up the English far right, and this is just the latest grim consequence.pic.twitter.com/OQn3ogwuze— Owen Jones \ud83c\udf39 (@Owen Jones \ud83c\udf39) 1644259105
Westminster has been out of control for years. The scenes round Parliament Square in the May years were terrifying. Solutions are hard. People have rights. Should something appalling happen, things will change overnight. In the meantime, it feels like we\u2019re just waiting for it.— Tom Peck (@Tom Peck) 1644272834
Follow the Trump playbook get the same results. Boris Johnson should be ashamed.https://twitter.com/politicsjoe_uk/status/1490754883724713987\u00a0\u2026— amar singh (@amar singh) 1644258899
In the last 30 years, we've had 6 prime ministers:\n\nJohn Major\nTony Blair\nGordon Brown\nDavid Cameron\nTheresa May \nBoris Johnson\n\nSay what you like about the first 5, but there is no way *any* of them would have weaponised a serial child abuser to smear a leader of the opposition.— Rachel Clarke (@Rachel Clarke) 1644265329
A reminder that Boris Johnson has previous on this. When he made his racist comments comparing Muslim women to letterboxes and bank robbers, there was a spike in attacks recorded against Muslims, with 42% of attackers directly referencing Johnson, or the language he used.— Adam Bienkov (@Adam Bienkov) 1644264115
This is terrifying - I hope @Keir_Starmer is OK. \n@BorisJohnson & every Tory Minister and politician who have defended the Savile slur are complicit in this. Words have consequences - and failure to condemn is to condone. Tory MPs know what to do - they have got to get him outhttps://twitter.com/politicsjoe_uk/status/1490754883724713987\u00a0\u2026— Caroline Lucas (@Caroline Lucas) 1644265566
4 months after David Ames was stabbed to death Johnson desperate to save his job decided to provoke violence against the leader of the opposition. @BorisJohnson needs to retract his Saville statement ....he won't because he literally has no integrity, none.\n#JohnsonTheLiar— Con O'Neill (@Con O'Neill) 1644260918
Apologise. \n\nApologise now, because this sits on you.\n\nAnd there is now \u201cmoving on\u201d until you apologise in parliament and correct the parliamentary record.— Mike Galsworthy (@Mike Galsworthy) 1644263256
Tobias Ellwood the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Defence Committee, told the prime minister “apologise please”.
“Let’s stop this drift towards a Trumpian style of politics from becoming the norm,” he added.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said: “Any politician choosing to weaponise online conspiracy theories against opponents knows fine well that they risk stirring up the kind of hate and abuse that Keir Starmer experienced today.
“If he has any decency at all, the PM will now apologise unreservedly.”
Two arrests were made following the incident on the Victoria Embankment on Monday, with a Metropolitan Police statement saying: “Shortly after 5:10pm on Monday, February 7th, a man who had been surrounded by a group of protesters near to New Scotland Yard, was taken away from the scene by a police car.
“A man and a woman were arrested at the scene for assault of an emergency worker after a traffic cone was thrown at a police officer.”
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