Keir Starmer is bundled into a car outside Parliament

Keir Starmer was today bundled into a police car after being heckled by protesters as he walked near the Houses of Parliament. 

Dramatic footage showed the Labour leader being shouted at as he walked in Westminster while surrounded by police officers shortly before 5pm. 

He was then led into the back of a car as the protesters continued to swarm around him him whilst shouting about Jimmy Savile, hurling baseless allegations about him ‘protecting paedophiles’ and also branding him a ‘traitor’. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was heavily criticised last week after claiming in the House of Commons that Sir Keir failed to prosecute paedophile Savile when he was the Director of Public Prosecutions – even though he had played no role in the case and the decision not to bring charges.  

Both Conservative and Labour MPs slammed Mr Johnson on Monday evening for stoking protesters’ rage with his slur against the Labour leader. 

Sir Keir was joined outside Parliament by Labour’s shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who appeared to help police shield his boss from the protesters. Former Cabinet minister Julian Smith said the Prime Minister must withdraw the Savile slur for the sake of Sir Keir’s security.

Mr Lammy said on Twitter after the ordeal: ‘No surprise the conspiracy theorist thugs who harassed @Keir_Starmer & I repeated slurs we heard from @BorisJohnson last week at the despatch box. Intimidation, harassment and lies have no place in our democracy. And they won’t ever stop me doing my job.’ 

Mr Johnson tonight branded the targeting of Sir Keir as ‘absolutely disgraceful’ and said the harassment of politicians is ‘completely unacceptable’, but did not address the nature of the abuse directed at his counterpart. 

Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage also commented on Sir Keir’s brush with the protesters, saying on his GB News show that it represented ‘a side of politics that seems to get uglier by the month’.  

The protesters, who included anti-vaccine activist Piers Corbyn, had descended on London on Monday in support of Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’ of truck drivers in Ottawa. 

Scotland Yard later said two arrests were made after Sir Keir was escorted to safety. 

A Metropolitan Police statement said: ‘Shortly after 5.10pm on Monday, February 7, a man who had been surrounded by a group of protesters near to New Scotland Yard, was taken away from the scene by a police car.

‘A man and a woman were arrested at the scene for assault of an emergency worker after a traffic cone was thrown at a police officer. They have been taken into custody.’

After news of Sir Keir’s brush with the protesters emerged, furious MPs from both the Labour Party and the Conservatives slammed Mr Johnson for his comments last week. 

Conservative MP Julian Smith, who was sacked from his role as Northern Ireland Secretary by Mr Johnson, said on Twitter: ‘What happened to Keir Starmer tonight outside parliament is appalling. 

‘It is really important for our democracy & for his security that the false Savile slurs made against him are withdrawn in full.’

Mr Smith, a former chief whip, had said last week that Mr Johnson’s barb at Sir Keir in the Commons was ‘wrong and cannot be defended’ as he called on the PM to withdraw it.  

Labour’s Chris Bryant said on Twitter: ‘This is appalling. People were shouting all sorts at Keir, including “Jimmy Savile”. 

‘This is what happens when a prime minister descends into the gutter and recycles lies from hard-right conspiracy theorists. Political poison has an effect. Johnson has no moral compass.’ 

He had earlier claimed that the protesters’ targeting of Sir Keir was ‘incited by the Prime Minister’, adding: ‘It was the inevitable conclusion of his deliberate lies.’ 

The Labour MP later claimed to Channel 4 News that Mr Johnson had attempted to ‘incite a mob’ with his comments last week.    

‘We know how this plays out when politicians go down this deeply cynical route. Because we saw it in the United States of America, it is exactly the same as Donald Trump’s playbook. 

‘It is profoundly dangerous, and it is not the way we do politics in this country. It is so un-British,’ he added. 

Mr Johnson said on Twitter after the news emerged: ‘The behaviour directed at the Leader of the Opposition tonight is absolutely disgraceful. 

‘All forms of harassment of our elected representatives are completely unacceptable. I thank the police for responding swiftly.’ 

However, he was quickly criticised by Labour MP Angela Eagle, who said: ‘Apologise in person in Parliament for your disgusting and untrue slur against Keir Starmer or your comments below are meaningless.’   

Labour’s Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: ‘This is what happens when fake news is amplified and given credibility by people who should know better. 

‘Solidarity with @Keir_Starmer and @DavidLammy . Thank you to the Met officers for their swift intervention.’  

Deputy Commons Speaker Dame Eleanor Laing also tweeted about the incident. 

She said: ‘Tonight, the Leader of the Opposition, Sir @Keir_Starmer , and the Shadow Foreign Secretary, @DavidLammy , were mobbed outside @UKParliament.

‘This is unacceptable. Period. Elected representatives must be able to go about their work without the fear of verbal or physical attacks.’

Home Secretary Priti Patel said: ‘All Members of Parliament must be able to go about their lives without fear of threats or intimidation. 

‘The scenes outside Parliament of people accosting @Keir_Starmer & @DavidLammy were completely unacceptable.

‘I am in contact with the police about the incident’.  

Mr Farage said on GB News this evening: ‘In my own political career I was used to this sort of mob, I had it every day. 

‘But it is not the sort of thing we are used to seeing with the Leader of the Opposition. It represents an ugly side, a side of politics that seems to get uglier by the month.’ 

He added that he believes that the incident will plunge Mr Johnson back into a ‘huge row’ hours after he attempted to reset his premiership by appointing a new director of communications, Guto Harri, to replace the departed Jack Doyle.

Conservative commentator and broadcaster Iain Dale waded into the row on his show on LBC on Monday evening. He said he was ‘angry’ and claimed political life is being ‘debased’ in Britain by Boris Johnson and ‘plenty of others’.

Alluding to the fatal stabbing of Conservative MP Sir David Amess, he added: ‘I think all politicians, whoever they are, have a responsibility nowadays to be very careful about the abuse that they throw around. 

‘It is as if we have forgotten all of these incidents over the past few years. One day, something like this, something tragic will happen.

‘Anna Soubry, I’m sure, felt in fear of her life when she was pursued by those thugs along the embankment, I am sure it will have gone through Keir Starmer’s and David Lammy’s minds today. 

‘And the other effect of this is it means who in their right mind would want to go into politics and put themselves through this. Who would want to do it nowadays?

Mr Johnson had said last week that Sir Keir ‘spent most of his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile’.

He then sought to ‘clarify’ his remarks. Mr Johnson said: ‘I want to be very clear about this because a lot of people have got very hot under the collar, and I understand why.

‘I’m talking not about the Leader of the Opposition’s personal record when he was DPP and I totally understand that he had nothing to do personally with those decisions. I was making a point about his responsibility for the organisation as a whole.’

However, the clarification did not stop the resignation of his policy chief Munira Mirza, who said in a letter to the PM that she was leaving Downing Street because he had failed to apologise. 

Dan Rosenfield was then removed as chief of staff and Martin Reynolds as his principal private secretary. 

Mr Corbyn, whose brother Jeremy is Sir Keir’s predecessor as Labour leader, was filmed later on Monday speaking through a megaphone about the incident involving Sir Keir. 

He claimed that Sir Keir’s walking past the protesters as they rallied in support of the Canadian lorry drivers was ‘a bit too much of a coincidence’.

It comes after the mayor of Ottawa, the Canadian capital, declared a state of emergency over ‘totally out of control’ protests in the city.   

Ottawa’s mayor Jim Watson declared the state of emergency on Sunday as cross-border truckers continued to converge in the capital city where they blocked streets, shot off fireworks and blared horns, in protest to rules requiring them be fully vaccinated to enter either Canada or the United States. 

‘The situation at this point is completely out of control,’ Mayor Watson said on Sunday. 

‘The individuals with the protest are calling the shots. They have far more people than we have police officers.’ 

Ottawa Police Service said in a statement on Sunday it had launched over 60 criminal investigations in relation to the ongoing protests, including thefts, hate crimes and property damage. 

Seven people had been arrested by 9pm on Sunday, police said. 

‘Multiple vehicles and fuel have been seized,’ police said in the statement, adding they had issued a warning to the public that they could be subject to charges if they were found to be supplying demonstration trucks in the red zone with fuel. 

Police also relocated some protesters and put up fresh barricades, stating they are ‘collecting financial, digital, vehicle registration … and other evidence that will be used in criminal prosecutions.’ 

It emerged earlier on Monday that Sir Keir will not face police action after he was pictured drinking inside with colleagues during the coronavirus lockdown last year. 

Conservative MPs had demanded police investigate the alleged lockdown breach, claiming there was ‘no difference’ to the increasing pressure faced by Boris Johnson over the Partygate scandal at Downing Street.

However, Durham Police has confirmed it will not be taking any further action after the force ‘reviewed’ the footage of Sir Keir last month, The Sun reported.

A spokesperson said: ‘We do not believe an offence has been established in relation to the legislation and guidance in place at that time.

‘We will, therefore, take no further action.’

The Labour leader insisted there was ‘no comparison’ with his actions and the Prime Minister’s attendance at an event in the Downing Street garden where 100 had been invited to ‘bring your own booze’.