Resentment is simmering over the PM’s Savile comments, with MPs across the political spectrum urging him to apologise after the Labour leader was targeted by protestors last night.

Starmer and the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, were hastily bundled into a police car by officers as an angry mob surrounded them near Parliament, shouting ‘Jimmy Savile’ and ‘traitor’.

The incident came just days after the PM made the Jimmy Savile slur when he lashed out at the Labour leader in the House of Commons.

The comments about the debunked claim that Starmer failed to prosecute Savile during his time as director of public prosecutions sparked outcry.

The widely criticised remarks prompted the resignation of Johnson’s policy chief Munira Mirza. They also also saw Rishi Sunak distance himself from Johnson. In a public snub of the PM, the chancellor said, “he wouldn’t have said it.”

Following last night’s incident outside Parliament, Boris Johnson is facing fresh calls from across the political divide, including some of his own MPs, to apologise for making a false claim about the Labour leader and to retract the comments.

Without addressing the nature of the insults, the prime minister took to Twitter to say the behaviour directed at Starmer was “absolutely disgraceful.”

However, a number of Tory MPs have criticised Johnson, including former chief whip Julian Smith, who said it is “really important for our democracy and for his [Starmer’s] security that the false Savile slurs made against him are withdrawn in full.”

Some of the Tory MPs who have publicly submitted letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson following the parties’ scandal, are also calling for an apology, including Tobias Ellwood, Anthony Mangnall and Roger Gale.

Stop ‘Trumpian style politics from becoming the norm’

Ellwood, Conversative MP for Bournemouth East, who chairs the Commons Defence Committee, told Johnson to “apologise please,” adding: “Let’s stop this drift towards a Trumpian style of politics from becoming the norm,”

Robert Largan, MP for the High Peak, expressed concerns, saying it was time to defuse the situation.

“Words matter. What we say and how we say it echoes out far beyond parliament. It can have serious real world consequences. Elected representatives have a responsibility to lower the temperature of debate, not add fuel to the fire.”

Labour sources have articulated fury at the incident.

‘A disgusting new low’

Dame Angela Eagle, Labour MP for Wallasey, described the prime minister as hitting a “disgusting new low.”

“PM must now personally and unconditionally apologise for his disgusting lie on the floor of the House of Commons where he first made it,” Eagle said.

Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda, who chairs the Commons Committee on Standards, said: “This is what happens when a prime minister descends into the gutter and recycles lies from hard-right conspiracy theorists. Political poison has an effect. Johnson has no moral compass.”

‘Words have consequences’

Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton, shared strong condemnation, tweeting:

“This is terrifying.

“@BorisJohnson and every Tory minister and politician who have defended the Savile Slur are complicit in this. Words have consequences – and failure to condemn is to condone. Tory MPs know what to do – they have got to get him out.”  

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon joined the censure, urging the PM to apologise: “Any politician choosing to weaponise online conspiracy theories against opponents knows full well that they risk stirring up the kind of hate and abuse that Keir Starmer experienced today. If he has any decency at all, the PM will now apologise unreservedly,” Sturgeon tweeted.  

The condemnation over Johnson’s false Jimmy Savile slur against the Labour leader isn’t confined to politicians.

In the wake of the abuse Starmer faced by an angry mob gathered outside Parliament, people from all backgrounds have been expressing their dismay.

A musician and artist from Scotland believes Starmer should have Johnson “in the doc for inciting violence. “After the recent killings of MPs, Johnson’s words are what is leading to more threats against the UK’s politicians. It is time he was removed from office.

“When are people going to wake up to this? When?”

Emotion shared by Celia Birchby, a former headteacher in Cheshire, who told LFF:

“It’s so disturbing, Johnson’s incitement for Starmer to be heckled. Pathetic echoes of Trump.

“How has he not gone?”

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward.

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