THE outrage around the Prime Minister’s false accusation about Jimmy Savile having escaped prosecution because of Keir Starmer has continued to grow – without the Tory government doing anything to address the claim.

MPs from the SNP, Labour and the Tories have called on the UK Government to retract Johnson’s attack, but no ministers have been willing to do so.

Instead, top Tories such as Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab have entertained the plausibility of the false accusations.

“People who just say ‘we don’t really know’, ‘this is probably plausible’, they do create a sense of respectability to these claims. They are responsible [to an extent],” conspiracies PhD researcher Jared Stacy previously told The National.

Stacy, who fled his home in the US after his community became overrun with QAnon conspiracy theorists, said on Tuesday that the Tory government now seemed to be moving “the measuring stick away from misinformation to disinformation”.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson 'parrots far-right attacks' with Savile prosecution attack on Starmer

“A very simple way to describe it is that misinformation is everywhere. It’s when you’re just wrong, or misinformed. But misinformation becomes disinformation when there’s intent to produce doubt,” he explained.

“It becomes politically advantageous to allow that misinformation to hang out there.

“I think the key is the shift from misinformation to disinformation. It’s no longer a question of whether or not these claims are true or false. It’s a claim that is unsubstantiated, and the longer it remains unsubstantiated, the more power it has.”

Speaking to the BBC, deputy prime minister Raab said he did not “have the facts” to either repeat or dismiss Johnson’s Savile claim.

He further said that such attacks were just part of “the cut and thrust of Parliamentary debate”.

The National: Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries Photo: PA

Culture Secretary Dorries (above) did similar. Quizzed about her boss spreading “fake news” about Starmer by Channel 4, she gave a series of bullish responses in an interview which went viral on social media.

After claiming she didn’t “know the background” of the Savile claim, the top Tory ultimately insisted that “the Prime Minister tells the truth” – despite Johnson’s accusation having been widely debunked.

Stacy highlighted right-wing politicians in the US who, without publicly saying Joe Biden stole or rigged any election, call for “electoral integrity” going forward. He said it was “politically expedient” for people to drag out such disinformation because of the damage done to their opponents.

He said there were “clear and obvious similarities in the problematic discourse” between the politicians in the US and UK. “To me that’s clear as day,” he added.

Former No 10 aide under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown Theo Bertram shared an image showing searches for both Keir Starmer and Jimmy Savile spiking in unison.

“It's what [Donald] Trump repeatedly did to Hillary Clinton: deliberate smear tactic of the lowest kind,” he wrote.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesperson on Tuesday refused to repeat the remarks without the protection from prosecution afforded by parliamentary privilege. However, he said Johnson stood by the accusation, and insisted it related to a “political aspect of the Prime Minister’s work”.

Tech minister Chris Philp, answering questions at Westminster’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday, also refused to condemn the “lie” linking Savile and Starmer.

Philp said he would not “comment on current political controversies”, giving the false claim an air of plausibility in the same way as Raab had.

Highlighting the similarities between the two Tories’ rhetoric, SNP MP John Nicolson said: “I deeply disagree with that. Keir Starmer is a political opponent of mine, but I am happy to go on record as saying that is utterly untrue.

“To double-down on the smear I think just feeds online disinformation. I really advise you to back away from this. It is beneath the dignity of a minister of the crown to defend this in any way.”

READ MORE: 'Debasing himself': Starmer says Boris Johnson like 'right-wing trolls' over Savile slur

Nicolson’s assertion has already been proven correct, as online misinformation around the Savile-Starmer link spreads, and fact-checking by Reuters and Full Fact which found “no evidence” to support the Savile slur trending on Twitter.

One journalist highlighting that the fake claim originated on far-right Facebook groups was greeted with responses claiming that Starmer was in charge of the CPS at the time, and so must take responsibility. Others cast doubt on the now Labour leader’s reasoning for having ordered a probe into the failure to prosecute Savile.

Still more asked why Starmer would not simply apologise and allow the Savile affair to finally be put to bed.

Assertions that he had nothing to apologise for seemingly fell on deaf ears.