Sir Keir Starmer has described his fears for his young children after he received death threats following the Prime Minister’s Jimmy Savile smear.
The Met has launched an investigation after copies of online messages calling for the Labour leader to be executed were handed to police.
It comes after Boris Johnson falsely claimed Sir Keir had failed to prosecute notorious sex offender Savile when he was head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)
“I do not like talking about this because I have got young children,” Sir Keir told BBC Radio Newcastle on Monday.
“It’s very important for me to say that what the Prime Minister said was wrong, it was very wrong. He knew exactly what he was doing.
“There has been a right-wing conspiracy theory for some time that’s a complete fabrication.
“He fed into that, and that has caused difficulty, but my preference, if I may, is not to talk about that because, as I say, I have got young children and I don’t particularly want them to hear too much of what may or may not be said about me.”
Documents, including messages from users of the Telegram app, were sent to Scotland Yard by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) on Friday.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “On Friday February 11, police received a third party report relating to allegations of malicious communications made against a serving Member of Parliament. An investigation is ongoing.”
A Labour source said: “Of course extremists of all stripes don’t like Keir – he spent years helping to put them and their ilk in prison and keep Britain’s streets safe from them.”
Although Sir Keir was head of the Crown Prosecution Service in 2009 when a decision was taken not to prosecute Savile, he had no personal involvement in the deliberations.
He later ordered an investigation into the CPS and police handling of the case.
Last Monday, Sir Keir and David Lammy had to be escorted away from demonstrators by police after they had obscenities shouted at them.
Savile victims, Tory MPs and the Commons speaker have urged the Prime Minister to withdraw his accusation in the Commons that Sir Keir was to blame for failing to bring the notorious sex offender to justice when he led the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Mr Johnson tweeted that the “behaviour directed” at the Labour leader was “absolutely disgraceful”.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid, speaking on a visit to east London on Tuesday, said the images of the opposition leader being bundled into a police car to be escorted away from protesters were “completely disgraceful”.
But the Cabinet minister, who has previously distanced himself from the PM’s Savile comments, said “the people that are to blame are the protesters themselves” rather than Mr Johnson.
