British opposition leader Keir Starmer accuses Prime Minister Boris Johnson of spreading conspiracy theories about him. On Monday, Starmer had to be evicted by police when an angry mob attacked him.

In an interview with The Times, he connected that incident and statements by Johnson in parliament.

During a heated debate, Johnson blamed Starmer for failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile as chief of the prosecution. Savile was a star in the UK. After he died in 2011, hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse against him came to light. The media personality had already been accused of abuse while he was alive, but this did not lead to prosecution.

Starmer was leaving a government building on Monday when a crowd approached him. Protesters called him, among other things, a protector of paedophiles. The police then brought Starmer to safety. “The prime minister knew what he was doing,” the opposition leader told The Times. He speaks of “a conspiracy theory of violent fascists” that he says has been circulating for some time.

Starmer told The Times he was not even aware of the decision not to prosecute Savile in 2009. Fact-checkers from the BBC, among others, report that there is indeed no evidence that he was personally involved in the decision to let the former presenter walk.

Johnson has not apologized but has nuanced his statements. He said he didn’t want to imply that Starmer was personally involved in the decision. Instead, he wanted to make it clear that Starmer, as boss of the Public Prosecution Service, did bear indirect responsibility for this.