Levelling up secretary Michael Gove has urged people to “move on” from the row over false claims Boris Johnson made about Sir Keir Starmer’s failure to prosecute peadophile Jimmy Savile.
It comes a day after Sir Keir was rescued by police after a crowd heckled him outside parliament, including slurs about Savile and the Labour leader being a “traitor”. Asked about the situation on Tuesday, Mr Gove described it as a “uniquely sensitive issue” but said only “the sooner we move on the better.”
Earlier, Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle intervened to warn Mr Johnson that his “words have consequences”, branding the remarks “inappropriate”. Senior Conservative MPs have also asked the PM to apologise, but Downing Street insisted earlier this would not happen.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, today described the abuse Sir Keir suffered as “sickening”, claiming it “is a reflection of the toxic cocktail of conspiracy theories, smears and lies that swirl around our politics now”. She added the PM had “weaponised” such issues and urged him to “fully, unreservedly and unequivocally apologise”.
