Keir Starmer must never be forgiven for using a spurious medieval loophole to put investigative journalism in the dock

SIR Keir Starmer has called on Scotland Yard to probe sex abuse claims against Prince Andrew.

Many will agree the Duke of York has questions to answer about his relationship with billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and allegations of under-age sex orgies.

Sir Keir makes much of his previous role as Director of Public Prosecutions and a champion of the rule of law.

Preaching a sermon against Westminster cronyism and sleaze last week, he declared his faith in truth, trust and transparency.

Caught flat-footed

So why did he react as if punched in the guts when asked about the bizarre relationship between Epstein and one of his closest political allies, Peter Mandelson?

Private documents reveal the Labour peer — known to Epstein as “Petie” — stayed at the pervert’s luxury New York pad while Epstein was actually in jail for his vile crimes.

The story was unearthed by Financial Times journalist Jim Pickard.

He used Starmer’s holier-than-thou attack on the Tories to ask if Mandelson, a.k.a. The Prince of Darkness, also had “questions to answer” about Epstein.

Sir Shifty was caught flat-footed by this.

“I don’t know any more than you and there’s not really much I can add to what is already out there, I’m afraid,” he spluttered.

Why didn’t he know? Has he asked? How could this self-proclaimed scourge of terrorists, murderers and rapists be so casual about ties between one of his best buddies and the world’s most notorious sex criminal?

Mandelson, twice forced to resign from Tony Blair’s government over allegations of misconduct, has spent his entire political career followed like a bad smell by disreputable allegations.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

But why was Gordon Brown’s Business Secretary, and effectively his deputy Prime Minister, dossing in a sumptuous Manhattan apartment owned a despicable jailbird?

Sir Keir was comparatively silent last week about another shocking story — the ruthless Post Office persecution of its innocent sub-postmasters and mistresses.

Yes, he demanded speedy compensation for those whose homes, life savings and in some cases actual lives were lost.

But he refused to call for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells — the woman at the helm throughout this scandal — to be stripped of her CBE.

The Post Office’s grotesque abuse of power was slammed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission as the “most widespread miscarriage of justice [we have] ever seen”.

ITV’s harrowing four-part drama, Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, touched the nation.

Sun readers then poured out their hearts in letters to the paper.

For some viewers, this was a poignant reminder of another case of innocent men and women hounded by unaccountable authority.

Under Operation Elveden, launched in 2011, dozens of blameless journalists were pursued by police over crimes that they not only did not commit but which, it turned out, weren’t crimes at all.

Just as with the Post Office scandal, their lives were turned upside down — with dawn raids by mob-handed cops who ransacked drawers and even rummaged through children’s underwear.

For three years they were held on such savage bail terms that then Home Secretary Theresa May stepped in to protect defendants.

This grotesque injustice was carried out under a discredited 13th-century law banning “conspiracy to misconduct in public office” — in this case, paying public officials for information.

It was invoked against about two-dozen Sun journalists in the feeding frenzy over a totally separate newspaper scandal — phone hacking.

Operation Elveden, as that travesty of justice was known, was the longest and costliest investigation in Scotland Yard history.

Public interest

In every case, the journalists were acquitted without a stain on their character.

It was not illegal for news-papers to pay informants. The information, some withheld by the Ministry of Defence, was not only in the public interest but sometimes saved lives.

The Crown Prosecution Service took a pounding. At one point the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Justice Thomas, rebuked its QC for having failed “to consider the freedom of the Press”.

So just who was the State Prosecutor who used a spurious medieval loophole to put investigative journalism in the dock?

Step forward Sir Keir Starmer KC, now leader of the Labour Party and perhaps our next Prime Minister.