The row sparked by British prime minister Boris Johnson saying opposition leader Kier Starmer failed to prosecute notorious paedophile Jimmy Saville, refuses to go away UK correspondent Mathew Parris says.
“It's having a huge effect and it's just not going away because the Prime Minister won't apologise,” Parris told Kathryn Ryan.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street for PMQs,February 02, 2022 Photo: AFP
.“He quite plainly tried to link to Kier Starmer, the leader of the opposition, with the notorious late paedophile Jimmy Savile, simply because Starmer had been in charge of Public Prosecutions at the time.
“But it was not Starmer’s decision in any way that Savile was never prosecuted, and he died before he could be prosecuted.”
It was, says Parris, a completely unjustified smear.
“So much so that the even the BBC feels emboldened to call it an entirely false claim.
“And it just seems such a nasty piece of shin-kicking, nobody will let it go. The Labour Party won't let it go. The media won't let it go. Many Conservative MPs have been horrified by the Prime Minister trying to smear the Leader of the Opposition in this way.”
Johnson has resolutely refused to apologise, Parris says.
“He has ‘explained’ as he puts it, that he was never suggesting that Kier Starmer was personally associated with the decision. But if so, why would he have shouted it at him across the chamber? It convinces nobody. And it's a really sordid little story.”
Many of Johnson’s back benchers are keeping their powder dry, he says. The 1922 Committee must receive 54 letters of no confidence to trigger a leadership contest.
“There are certainly more than 54 who think he should go, but they don't want to call the confidence vote until he can lose it [confidence vote].
“And they're being a bit timid about it, because I don't think he would win sufficiently well to carry on, but they are being a bit timid and they're waiting for this, that or the other.”
Johnson meanwhile has said it will take a whole “regiment of tanks to drag him out of Downing Street.”
“The Prime Minister clings on he has just done a mini reshuffle or ‘he-shuffle’ as people are saying because it's all men that he has appointed.
“He's moved Jacob Rees-Mogg over to being chief whip. I won't bore you with the details of it. It just looks a little bit desperate.”
Johnson has also announced what few Covid restrictions remain will be lifted, he says.
“It's all part of the Prime Minister's desperate attempts not to be chucked out by his party. And today at Prime Minister's questions, he said that all restrictions are going to be lifted within about two weeks.
“And we don't have many restrictions any longer that people are asked to wear face masks, on trains and in crowded places as you're supposed to on the London Underground, but I'm afraid you are seeing already a complete fraying of respect for the regulations because everybody knows the regulations are on their way out.”
Ditching remaining restrictions is a sop to the right of his party, Parris says.
“The right of the Conservative Party are the people upon whom he depends, they're the people not now happy that he's sufficiently Brexity, the Brexit thing isn't going as well as they hoped. And he needs to please them. So, this is throwing red meat to the Tory right.”
Johnson's new appointments after a string of resignations from No 10 staff have all been Brexiteers, he says.
“What he is saying to the people that supported him in the first place is carry on supporting me good appointments, new appointments are all going to go to my mates and the people who are loyal.
“And it really been ridiculous hearing loyalists, Boris loyalists on the radio, trying to defend the Jimmy Saville slurs, he's making them make fools, idiots of themselves.”
