David Lammy slams 'Trumpian' PM for inciting mob who ambushed him
12 February 2022, 19:44
David Lammy speaks out on Parliament mob he and Keir Starmer faced
In his first show since he and Sir Keir Starmer were accosted outside Parliament by anti-vaxxers, David Lammy slammed the Prime Minister for using "a conspiracy theory" in Parliament which the protesters were heard shouting at them.
The Labour leader had to be rescued by police after he was surrounded as he left Parliament shortly after 5pm on Monday, following a briefing on Ukraine at the Ministry of Defence.
The incident comes after Mr Johnson made a disproved claim in the Commons that Sir Keir failed to prosecute Savile when he was director of public prosecutions.
David told LBC listeners: "I've been an MP now for 21 years, I've seen many angry crowds.
"I remember angry crowds during the Iraq war, I saw a lot of anger during the riots of 2011. I saw tremendous anger during the Brexit protests, on both sides of that debate."
He described the moment the mob approached: "We saw this mob... on the other side of the street. The mob pushed through the barricades on the other side of the street the minute they saw myself and Sir Keir Starmer.
"They were hurling a conspiracy, that you just heard, and you heard Boris Johnson use at the despatch box.
"It's a conspiracy theory that's out there on the dark web. It's at the corner of the internet in fringe, nasty, right-wing places. It's complete hogwash.
"Why have we got a Prime Minister that's hanging out on the dark web?"
David Lammy asks 'what comes next' after Cressida Dick.
Read more: Boris 'belts out I will Survive' to new communications chief after shake-up at No10
David explained that he'd disagreed with "lots of Prime Ministers" including David Cameron, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Theresa May, but that they would ever have brought material from the "dark recesses of the web" to the despatch box at Prime Minister's Questions.
"There's only one other politician that I've seen in recent times that behaved like that. His name was Donald Trump," he continued.
"We did our best and we got out of the situation. But the leader of the opposition shouldn't have to be bundled into a police car, on Whitehall.
"There's a very, very simple question, which is, is Boris Johnson doing irreparable damage to our country's democracy?"
Read more: Sunak distances himself from Boris' Jimmy Savile 'slur' at Keir Starmer
