Victims of Jimmy Savile are "universally appalled and disgusted" with Boris Johnson's "disgusting" slur in the Commons, their lawyer has claimed.
Richard Scorer, head of abuse and public inquiries at law firm Slater and Gordon said many of the victims he represented feel the Prime Minister is "using" them to climb out of a "political hole".
Speaking to the Mirror, Mr Scorer said: "[The victims] are universally appalled and disgusted by those remarks and want him to apologise.
"They also feel he should withdraw those remarks."
The PM lashed out at the Labour leader yesterday during a Commons debate on lockdown breaking parties in Downing Street, accusing him of not prosecuting Savile.
Mr Starmer led the Crown Prosecution Service when it decided not to prosecute Savile in 2009 due to insufficient evidence, a decision it later apologised for.
The PM was “strongly advised” not to make the Savile reference according to the Financial Times - which quoted one Tory MP branding it “totally outrageous”.
Despite this, the cornered PM lashed out yesterday, saying: “He spent most of his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile, as far as I can make out.”
Mr Scorer insists the accusations against Mr Starmer are "completely untrue" and it's "completely reprehensible" that Dominic Raab, the Deputy Prime Minister could not highlight the truth.
"Our legal system relies on truth and people being truthful. If the Justice Secretary can't do that then we're in a desperate place."
But the Full Fact website investigated in 2020 and found it had never actually been suggested that Sir Keir was personally involved in the decision.
Instead, the CPS said: “The reviewing lawyer at the time set out their own reasons for the decisions they took”.
And today Sir Keir himself blasted the claims. He told ITV ’s Good Morning Britain: “It’s a slur, it’s untrue, it’s desperate from the Prime Minister.
“I was really struck yesterday in the House at how many Conservative MPs were disgusted at that untruth from the despatch box.
“Of course on our side, people were disgusted. But his own MPs couldn’t believe their Prime Minister had stooped that low.
“He’s degraded the whole office. And this is how he operates. He drags everybody into the gutter with him.
“Everybody he touches, everybody that comes into contact with him is contaminated by this Prime Minister.”
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab admitted “I can’t substantiate that" - despite trying to brush it off as "the cut and thrust of parliamentary debates and exchanges".
Tory MP Julian Smith said: “The smear made against Keir Starmer relating to Jimmy Saville yesterday is wrong & cannot be defended.
“It should be withdrawn.
“False and baseless personal slurs are dangerous, corrode trust & can't just be accepted as part of the cut & thrust of parliamentary debate.”
But Boris Johnson ultra-loyalist and Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries tried to defend the PM’s claim.
Asked how she could have a PM just repeating fake news she shrugged dramatically and told Channel 4 News: “Well, I have no idea of the background of Keir Starmer.”
Told it was an old meme repeated by conspiracy theorists, she replied: “Well, I think there are lots of things Keir Starmer shouldn’t have said.”
Told Boris Johnson misled the House, she replied: “I don’t think that’s the case.”
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said the Prime Minister’s comments were not “disorderly”, but warned they would “inflame opinions and generate disregard for the House”.
He added: “I am far from satisfied that the comments in question were appropriate on this occasion.”
