Johnson Resists Pressure to Apologise After Starmer Confronted by Protesters

Screenshot from video of clashes between police and protesters as officers use a police vehicle to escort Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to safety near Parliament in Westminster on Feb. 7, 2022. Courtesy of Conor Noon via PA

Prime Minister Boris Johnson resisted calls for him to apologise for taking a swipe at Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer after the opposition leader was surrounded and followed by a group of protesters.

Police had to bundle Starmer into a car near Parliament on Monday evening after around one or two dozen protesters chased him, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, and three other individuals, shouting at Starmer and making accusations seen by some as echoing Johnson’s comments.

A few minor scuffles between the police and the protesters followed the incident, resulting in two arrests. The Metropolitan Police said the pair were arrested on suspicion of assault after a traffic cone was thrown at an officer.

The group of protesters, led by Piers Corbyn, brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, have been demonstrating regularly against a wide range of issues including lockdowns and the push towards mandatory CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccines.

In a video posted online, a protester was heard asking why Starmer hadn’t opposed the government—presumably referring to Labour’s support of the Conservative government’s CCP virus policies—why he didn’t “stand up for the working class,” and if the Labour Party had become a “party of the elite.”

He was also heard asking, “Why did you go after Julian Assange?” without specifying what he meant by the accusation, while others were heard chanting “traitor.” Phrases including “protector of paedophiles” and “Freemason” were also heard in the video.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer leaves his home ahead of the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session in the House of Commons in London, on Jan. 12, 2022. Leon Neal/Getty Images

The incident came a week after Johnson accused Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, of spending “most of his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute [paedophile] Jimmy Savile” before his death in 2011.

Starmer, director of public prosecutions at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) between 2008 and 2013, apologised on behalf of the CPS on Jan. 11, 2013, after three official reports uncovered that Savile had committed at least 214 sexual abuse offences, including 34 rapes or serious sexual assaults, over 54 years against adults and children of both sexes aged between 8 and 47, and that police and prosecutors had missed the chance to build a case against the BBC star in 2009 after four victims came forward. But there’s no evidence Starmer had a direct personal role in the failure.

Johnson, who was trying to repel calls for him to resign over alleged lockdown-breaching parties in Downing Street, made the remarks on Jan. 31 during a heated exchange of words in Parliament after Starmer said the prime minister was “unworthy of his responsibilities.”

Johnson later clarified that his comment was referring to the former prosecutor’s public apology, but stopped short of apologising to Starmer, irking Downing Street’s policy chief Munira Mirza, who resigned over the matter.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London, on Jan. 19, 2022. House of Commons/PA

Following Monday’s incident, Johnson denounced the protesters’ behaviour as “absolutely disgraceful” on Twitter, adding, “All forms of harassment of our elected representatives are completely unacceptable.” But a number Conservative and opposition MPs blamed Johnson’s previous jibe as a contributing factor in the incident, calling on the prime minister to apologise.

Also writing on Twitter, Julian Smith, who previously served as Johnson’s Northern Ireland secretary, said it was “really important for our democracy” and Starmer’s security that “the false Savile slurs made against him are withdrawn in full.”

Former minister Stephen Hammond, one of the 15 Tory MPs to have publicly called for Johnson to resign over the “Partygate” saga, said he agreed with Smith, as did fellow Tory MPs Robert Largan and Aaron Bell, who were elected in 2019.

Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, said it’s “very hard to draw a direct link and to say that in some ways, the prime minister is directly responsible for what happened,” but suggested that injecting “poison into politics” will lead to “unintended consequences” including “intimidation ... violence ... extremism.”

A government minister defended Johnson, saying the prime minister is not to blame for the incident.

Speaking to Sky News, technology minister Chris Philp said Starmer wasn’t the only person targeted by the group.

“The people involved in that fracas have previously done similar things to people like [cabinet minister] Michael Gove and BBC journalist Nick Watt,” he said.

“They did mention Jimmy Savile. They also mentioned Julian Assange repeatedly, they mentioned COVID, they also mentioned the opposition more generally,” Philp added.

“I don’t think you can point to what the prime minister said as the cause of that. You certainly can’t blame him for the fact that that mob were clearly behaving in a totally unacceptable way.”

Johnson’s official spokesman said the prime minister’s original words last week in the Commons were “capable of being misconstrued” but did not issue an apology.

“The prime minister clarified his remarks last week to make clear he was not suggesting Keir Starmer was individually responsible for the Savile decision,” the spokesman said.

“I think the prime minister was making a political point about taking responsibility for organisations as a whole,” he said.

PA Media contributed to this report.