From Keir Starmer to Harold Wilson: The history of smears against Labour leaders.
Boris Johnson’s absurd allegation that when Keir Starmer was DPP he failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile has been taken up by some sections of the right-wing media. In reality the decision not to prosecute was not Starmers and he ordered an inquiry into why it had not been made and what changes were required to avoid such things happening again.
Of course for Johnson such remarks are just throw away comments but the media is a different matter with a long history of smears on Labour leaders. Jeremy Corbyn was smeared as a Czech spy and much else, which as laughable as it was, was picked up and not just by Tories. His predecessor Ed Miliband was also smeared by the Mail because it claimed his father Ralph was an unpatriotic Marxist. The latter he was and he also served for three years in the Royal Navy.
Michael Foot claimed the Sunday Times was a Russian spy an actionable claim. It lost. Harold Wilson was also smeared as a Russian spy, which given he allowed US troops to use UK military bases in the far east for the Vietnam War seems unlikely.
Of course Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were not smeared in the same way. The New Labour strategy was to befriend the press-at least the Murdoch bit- and thereby undermine any smears. It worked but its reasonable to ask what the political price was.
The counter to all this of course, which Corbyn managed in 2017 but not later (for well documented reasons) is to mobilise popular grassroots support well beyond the worlds of Parliament and the national media.
Consistency in calling out smears against Labour leaders is also important, recognising that the hard right media finds even centre and right-wing Labour leaders far too left-wing
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