Starmer mobbed after Johnson's Savile slurs, but will the mud stick?

After Boris Johnson used Jimmy Savile to attack Keir Starmer, Starmer gets mobbed. Words have consequences. Yesterday we saw several videos of Keir Starmer being mobbed as he left Portcullis House for the Palace of Westminster. Quite why he chose to walk out to a braying mob is unclear since he didn’t have to, there’s a passage between the two, perhaps he felt their was some gain to be had from doing so but if that’s the case it didn’t work out for him. Records from Starmer’s time as Director of Public Prosecution, between 2008 and 2013 no longer exist. What he himself was directly involved in at that time, cannot be proven, though that time frame does of course cover the Crown Prosecution Service interest in both Savile and Assange. Savile died in 2011, the claims made against Starmer by Boris Johnson are unprovable and the fact he only made them when protected by parliamentary privilege bears that out. He was advised not to make the claims, but did so anyway, desperate to distract from his own bad headlines and went full Trump to do it. The Assange issue continues, very much publicly and Starmer’s comments in recent years supporting Assange’s extradition to the US, mean anecdotal evidence and commentary concerning this case and a worrying disregard for whistleblowing are more difficult for him. Johnson’s words cut through though. Dishonest and unevidenced as they were, they’re entirely believable, especially to those of us more familiar with Starmer’s dishonesty and so the damage is done, but isn’t it interesting that, this, the first time he encounters real abuse, that he failed to challenge it? It’s also interesting looking at those who have come out to defend him, from mainstream journalists giving Johnson loyallists a hard time, to Conservative commentators and backbenchers. Perhaps he wanted to be seen as a victim? He’s had a taste of what his predecessor put up with for 5 years. Where was this support and outcry, when Corbyn was assaulted? It was called getting egged at the time, but actually he was punched. What about the military using his face for target practice? Can you imagine them doing this to Starmer? What about the attempt to kill him at Finsbury Park Mosque? Even members of his own party were attacking him at that point to undermine the vision he stood for instead of standing up for him as Tories even are for Starmer, Mr establishment versus a liability of a PM. We face extortionate energy price rises, when Corbyn would have renationalised and turned those multibillion pound profits into price cuts. Free broadband during COVID, not abstaining as Labour did last night over cuts to pensions and social security, no National Insurance hikes, yet Starmer constantly sits on his hands so is it little wonder people are getting so angry? Vicious policy unopposed by the opposition means we’re being failed by Johnson and Starmer alike. Johnson succeeded in getting the heat off his parties, at least for a while, but people are getting angrier and angrier and something is going to give.