KEIR Starmer has furiously hit back after he was slandered by Boris Johnson and accused of “failing” to prosecute Jimmy Savile.

The accusation comes from right-wing online platforms and blames Starmer in his former role as director of public prosecutions for Savile never facing justice for his vile crimes.

The Prime Minister said Starmer had spent his time as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) “prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Saville”.

Speaking on Sky News on Tuesday, Starmer said the slur was “ridiculous” and “peddled by right-wing trolls”.

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He said Conservative MPs showed “disgust” when Johnson made the comments in the House of Commons yesterday.

The Labour leader added: “Their Prime Minister was debasing himself by sinking so low.

“They knew he was going so low with that slur, with that lie. He’d been advised not to do it because it’s not true.

“But he does it because he doesn’t understand what honesty and integrity mean.”

While Starmer was the head of the CPS when it decided against charging Saville, he was not directly involved in the case, which was handled by Surrey Police and a CPS reviewing lawyer.

Surrey Police in 2007 and 2008 investigated three complaints that Saville had sexually abused young girls.

It led to Saville being interviewed under caution but not arrested and police decided not to charge the former BBC presenter because none of the victims were “prepared to support any police action”, including testifying in court.

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Since Saville’s death in 2011, it emerged he had sexually abused hundreds of children and women.

In 2013, Starmer commissioned Alison Levitt QC to investigate the CPS’s decision not to prosecute Saville. She said the police’s approach to the investigation made the women reluctant to give evidence and help prosecutors.

Starmer admitted there were “errors in judgement” and apologised for “shortcomings” in the investigation. The CPS’s guidance on prosecuting child sex abuse was updated as a result.

Johnson’s comments were made yesterday following a statement on the outcome of the Sue Gray report.

Gray’s abridged report into parties at Downing Street during the height of lockdown found “failures of leadership and judgment”.

The Metropolitan Police is investigating potential breaches of the law and ordered Gray to omit large amounts of information from her report.