Boris used a quiet moment on his big trip to Ukraine yesterday to double down on his claims about Sir Keir Starmer and Jimmy Savile. Speaking to The Sun, the PM said “As far I’m aware, it’s fairly accurate”. Are the Tories now trialling a ‘dead nonce strategy’?

Is Boris’s attack, as he says, fairly accurate? Way back in 2018 Guido published a list detailing Starmer’s litany of failures as DPP, including failing to build a case against Jimmy Savile. In 2013 Starmer apologised to women abused by Savile after disclosing police had missed three chances to take the case to trial:

“I would like to take the opportunity to apologise for the shortcomings in the part played by the CPS in these cases.”

Hasn’t Labour been recently arguing the culture is set at the top of an institution…

As a Tory source points out to The Sun, if Sir Keir is really passing the buck on decisions taken by the CPS while he was head of the organisation, can he say what action he took at the time against those members of the CPS who were personally responsible? And did he similarly refuse to take any credit for achievements by the CPS that he had no personal involvement in? Guido suspects the answers to both is ‘no’…