The Conservatives would have reappointed Sir Keir Starmer as director of public prosecutions (DPP) for a further five years – but the future Labour leader wished to become an MP instead, according to a new biography.
In a revelation which appears to fly in the face of Tory attacks on Sir Keir’s record as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, a new book by journalist turned Labour spin doctor Tom Baldwin suggests “his term as DPP was judged to be very successful by the Tory government”.
Despite Conservative MPs having sought to controversially attack Sir Keir over the prosecution of grooming gangs, the upcoming new book Keir Starmer: The Biography notes that Tory ministers instead had signed off on a cross-party report commending the work Sir Keir had done on grooming scandals.
Sir Keir Starmer was taken out to dinner by Theresa May to thank him for his tenure leading the Crown Prosecution Service, according to a new biography
(Dan Kitwood/PA)
The book notes that, while home secretary, Theresa May took Sir Keir out to dinner to thank him for his service, while then-attorney general Dominic Grieve described the soon-to-be Labour MP as “one of the most successful directors of recent years” at his leaving party.
Although having rebuked Sir Keir at the start of his tenure of DPP for being too political, Mr Grieve – who had the Tory whip removed by Boris Johnon after voting against his Brexit deal – is quoted in the book as describing him as “highly effective and someone who always behaved with great integrity”.
While Sir Keir had made clear he would not seek a second term as DPP, Mr Grieve said: “I would definitely have reappointed him, of course I would. And I don’t think anyone else in government would have had any basis for taking a contrary view.
“For them to turn around now and attempt to muckrake his time as DPP is really infantile behaviour, completely unjustified and just a load of rubbish. It won’t work and I fear attacking public servants in this way will backfire badly on the Conservative Party.”
Since becoming Labour leader, the Tories under Mr Johnson, Rishi Sunak and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Liz Truss have sought to attack Sir Keir’s record as DPP – while he has instead sought to use it to bolster his political credentials as being tough on crime.
Starmer is pictured as a high-flying QC outside the Royal Courts of Justice in 2006
(Family handout/Harper Collins)
These Tory attacks have seen one of Mr Johnson’s advisers resign over his failure to issue an apology over remarks about paedophile Jimmy Savile, which were criticised by Mr Sunak at the time.
As recently as January, there were demands for Sir Keir to apologise for failing to intervene against private prosecutions brought by the Post Office against subpostmasters during the Horizon scandal, despite him not having the power to do so, according to the new biography.
Within the biography, Sir Keir is quoted as telling Baldwin: “I’m not saying we never made a mistake because, of course, there will be poor decisions in an organisation dealing with hundreds of thousands of cases.
“But I never took one in bad faith. I certainly don’t lie awake at night worrying they will find a file where I said, ‘Don’t prosecute him because he’s my mate or something’ because it just doesn’t exist.”
