Thread by @josephattard02

Keir Starmer was head of CPS when the 2009 ruling not to prosecute Jimmy Savile was made, but most likely wasn't directly involved in that decision. Make of that what you like.

HOWEVER. Here's a handy list of things you 100% CAN criticise him for while he was DPP... (🧵1/8)

2008, CPS refused to revisit wrongful convictions resulting from Mark Kennedy unlawfully infiltrating activist organisations by seducing members. (🧵2/8)

2009, Starmer declined to indict the officers who shot Brazilian immigrant Jean Charles de Menezez after falsely identifying him as a terror suspect. (🧵3/8)

in 2010, CPS initially refused to try PC Simon Harwood after he shoved Ian Tomlinson, a homeless newspaper seller, to the ground during the G20 summit protests. Tomlinson died of internal bleeding. CPS agreed with police that he died of “natural causes.” (🧵4/8)

Starmer authored rules to give police greater power to arrest demonstrators following 2010 protests. His successor described his legal advice as a “collective loss of proportion” and a denial of “humanity or justice”. (🧵5/8)

CPS appealed a decision from a lower court to release Assange on bail. Starmer advised lawyers from Sweden not to question Assange in Britain. Leaked emails show that, when they expressed doubts about the case, Starmer’s office replied: “Don’t you dare get cold feet.” (🧵6/8)

In 2013, he recommended harsher sentencing for ‘benefit cheats’. Starmer happily sang their tune, declaring: “I am determined to see a clampdown on those who flout the system. Later abstained on the 2015 Welfare Bill as an MP. (🧵7/8)

No matter how you swing it, Starmer is an establishment lackey with plenty of dirt on his resume.

Here's an article I wrote about it! marxist.com/britain-keir-s… (🧵8/8)

Final thought.

Fellow lawyer, David Renton, gave an assessment based on Starmer’s tenure as DPP…

"If such a leader was faced with news of an injustice in the future, the consequence of a change to immigration rules, say, or of a strike in public services…”

“…Starmer’s approach as DPP…might raise worries that he would not give a principled defence of the victims but would tell the press whatever it wanted to hear."

An apt summary of his performance as Labour leader I reckon.