The departure of Munira Mirza, Downing Street’s head of policy, suggests that time is running out for Boris Johnson’s government. Sliding in opinion polls and under investigation by the police over illegal lockdown parties in No 10, the administration has a fin de régime aura. Ms Mirza, reputed to be the prime minister’s most trusted and influential aide, said that she was quitting over a matter of principle – a rare thing in Mr Johnson’s shrinking circle. She was unwilling to stay silent over his scurrilous slur against Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer.
After working with Mr Johnson for 14 years, Ms Mirza must have been acquainted with his modus operandi. But his claim that Sir Keir spent “more time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile” from the dispatch box was a smear too far. Sir Keir had been director of public prosecutions when Savile was questioned under caution by police in 2009. But he was not involved in the decision not to pursue the case and there is nothing to suggest he knew that Savile was a serial sexual abuser and failed to prosecute him. A day after Mr Johnson’s deplorable attack, he was rebuked by the Commons Speaker, but refused to backtrack.
