Sajid Javid says Keir Starmer earned ‘respect’ after PM claimed he failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile
Now Sajid Javid distances himself from Boris: Health Secretary says Keir Starmer deserves ‘absolute respect’ after the PM claimed the Labour leader failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile
Sajid Javid becomes latest Cabinet member to distance themselves from PM Health Sec told Sky News that Sir Keir Starmer had done ‘a good job’ as the DPP Earlier in the week Chancellor Rishi Sunak admitted he ‘wouldn’t have said it’ Labour leader was accused of failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile in Commons
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Sajid Javid sided with Rishi Sunak last night as he distanced himself from Boris Johnson’s explosive claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.
In a fresh blow to the Prime Minister, the Health Secretary went out of his way to praise the Labour leader, saying he had done a ‘good job’ when he was director of public prosecutions.
In a marked contrast to the Prime Minister’s criticisms, Mr Javid said Sir Keir deserved ‘absolute respect’ for his work in the post when speaking to Sky News.
His comments yesterday came after the Chancellor took the extraordinary step of rebuking Mr Johnson for claiming his opponent was responsible for not prosecuting Savile.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference on Thursday, Mr Sunak said: ‘Being honest, I wouldn’t have said it.’
Mr Johnson’s premiership was rocked further after his long-standing policy chief Munira Mirza quit on Thursday over his refusal to apologise.
In her resignation letter, Ms Mirza said she had demanded Mr Johnson publicly retract his comments, as disillusioned Tory backbenchers pressed ahead with a brewing Tory civil war.
The remarks, made to Sir Keir during angry Commons exchanges this week, have also faced noisy criticism from moderate Tory MPs already wobbly about the PM’s future.
Boris Johnson has reportedly been told to sack Rishi Sunak after the Chancellor publicly rebuked the PM over his claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile
Health Secretary Sajid Javid (above) sided with Rishi Sunak last night as he distanced himself from Boris Johnson’s explosive claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile
After delivering a speech in London yesterday, Mr Javid told reporters: ‘Keir Starmer, when he was running the DPP, did a good job and he should be respected for it, it is a tough job and he deserved absolute respect for that.
‘But the Prime Minister has also come out and clarified those remarks, and that is important.’
Asked if the Prime Minister still had his support, Mr Javid said: ‘Of course he does. Absolutely.’
The disagreement between Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak has fuelled speculation the Chancellor wants to replace the PM in No10.
According to the Times, the Cabinet descended into civil war as one member called for the Prime Minister to sack Mr Sunak while two others accused him of being ‘on manoeuvres’, evidenced by his public criticism of the Prime Minister.
In an interview with the BBC on Thursday, Mr Sunak declined to answer three times whether he had ambitions to be the next Tory leader.
But Downing Street yesterday sought to play down tensions by insisting the pair’s relationship is still ‘good’.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘I don’t know when they last spoke, they speak almost daily, but I don’t know the exact last time.’
Asked how relations are between No 10 and No 11, he said: ‘Good – they agreed to a cost-of-living package that the Chancellor set out yesterday.’
But one cabinet minister told The Times: ‘He who wields the knife never wears the crown. It’s just so blatant.
‘Once the May elections are out the way there will be a reshuffle. Sunak has to go. I don’t see how he [Johnson] can keep someone who is so openly on manoeuvres.’
Another said: ‘I think very highly of Rishi but there are people around him who are not giving him good advice.
‘They’re encouraging him to stir things up — it isn’t helping him with the backbenches. Liz [Truss, the foreign secretary] has played a much smarter game for the day when the leadership contest comes along. He’s not wielding a knife, it’s a penknife.’
It is thought that as many as 15 MPs have publicly written letters of no confidence, but the actual number is thought to be far higher because most do not make their actions known.
The latest MP to call on Boris to resign is former minister Nick Gibb who said the Prime Minister had not been truthful in his explanations of parties reportedly held in No 10 and across Whitehall during Covid measures.
Earlier, Huw Merriman, Conservative chairman of the Transport Select Committee, backed Mr Sunak’s decision to distance himself from Mr Johnson’s comments.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The Chancellor was right to say that those wouldn’t have been the words that he would use and I absolutely agree with that.’
But appearing on the same programme, energy minister Greg Hands refused to say whether Mr Johnson was right to make the accusation about Sir Keir.
‘It is not my job to opine on these things. I am the energy minister,’ he said.
‘These are very serious matters in terms of child sexual abuse and what happened through the course of the Jimmy Savile events and the inquiry and so on.
‘My job is the energy minister, that is a big job. In politics you don’t have to have an opinion on everything.’
Mr Johnson was rocked by the shock resignation of policy chief Munira Mirza (left). Shortly afterwards it emerged the PM’s communications chief, Jack Doyle (right), was also departing
Former Minister Nick Gibb brings the number of Tory MPs who have now publicly called for Mr Johnson to resign to 15 as he said the PM had not been truthful in his Partygate explanations
Rishi Sunak, pictured with constituents yesterday, is among the favourites to replace Johnson
In the Commons on Monday, the PM told MPs that as director of public prosecutions Sir Keir had ‘spent most of his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile’.
He sought to ‘clarify’ his remark on Thursday, telling reporters: ‘Let’s be absolutely clear, I’m talking not about the Leader of the Opposition’s personal record when he was DPP and I totally understand that he had nothing to do personally with those decisions.
‘I was making a point about his responsibility for the organisation as a whole.’
During Sir Keir’s tenure as director of public prosecutions from 2008 to 2013, the police sought advice from the CPS on four allegations that Savile had sexually assaulted girls and young women in the 1970s.
In October 2009, the CPS reviewing lawyer with responsibility for the cases advised that since none of the complainants was ‘prepared to support any police action’, no prosecutions could be brought.
There is no evidence that Sir Keir was involved in the decisions.
Sir Keir issued an apology on behalf of the CPS in January 2013 following a review. ‘I would like to take the opportunity to apologise for the shortcomings in the part played by the CPS in these cases,’ he said in a statement.
He announced that new guidance on how child sexual abuse cases should be handled would be drawn up.
Savile died in 2011 aged 84 having never been brought to justice for his crimes. He is now believed to be one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.
