Boris Johnson not to blame for mob ambushing Keir Starmer, government minister says

A government minister claims that Boris Johnson is not to blame for a mob ambushing Labour leader Keir Starmer.

It comes as the Prime Minister is facing pressure to publicly apologise for his claim that Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile during his time as a lawyer.

The widely discredited claim has been accused of leading to Keir Starmer being harassed and ambushed by a mob accusing him of "protecting paedophiles".

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Technology minister Chris Philip states that he does not believe the Prime Minister is responsible for the incident that took place at Westminster on Monday.

“I don’t think you can say that’s why it happened because… the people involved in that fracas have previously done similar things to people like Michael Gove and BBC journalist Nick Watt,” he told Sky News.

“They did mention Jimmy Savile. They also mentioned Julian Assange repeatedly, they mentioned Covid, they also mentioned the opposition more generally.

“I don’t think you can point to what the Prime Minister said as the cause of that. You certainly can’t blame him for the fact that that mob were clearly behaving in a totally unacceptable way.”

Some Labour MPs have claimed that Boris Johnson is employing "smear" tactics as a way of strengthening his own political position.

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Labour MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan said the Prime Minister is ready to "smear any person or group who stands in his way and benefit only himself".

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This is straight out of the Trumpian playbook and most of us have come into public life to help change lives.

“But Boris Johnson has come into public office to seize power and smear any person or group who stands in his way and benefit only