Dan Hannan's latest history fail

Arch-Brexiteer Conservative Dan Hannan really, really loves Margaret Thatcher. He frequently invokes her in his Daily Telegraph and Conservative Home columns, has spoken of his “clear memory” of her 1979 election victory (when he was seven years old) and a large picture of his heroine still adorns the top of his X account.

It was on that very X account this week that Hannan, who considers himself something of a wit, decided to treat his followers to what he thought was a hilarious joke in response to the Peter Mandelson and Matthew Doyle scandals.

“‘Look here, Jimmy [Saville], these awful stories about you. They’re not true are they?’,” he posted.

“‘Now then, now then, Sir Keir, don’t believe everything you read.’”

“Good! Thanks for being so honest! Ambassadorship or peerage?’”

Apart from Hannan being highly unlikely to get a booking for Mock The Week anytime soon, he seems to have had a curious memory lapse for someone who so vividly recalls an election that took place when he was seven.

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For it was of course Savile’s close friend Margaret Thatcher, not Keir Starmer, who lobbied hard for the TV presenter to be knighted, despite senior civil servants repeatedly warning her about the risks.

Documents released in 2013 showed how, in 1983, mandarins rebuffed her requests, citing Savile’s “manner of life” and fears he might exploit the honour. Sir Robert Armstrong, the most senior civil servant in the country at the time and chair of the honours committee, vetoed the idea, saying it was too soon after “unfortunate revelations” in which the entertainer had boasted to the press of having sex with women he met while running charity marathons.

Thatcher raised the matter again just months later but Sir Robert said “lurid details” were unlikely to have been forgotten and it “would be best if Mr Savile were to wait a little longer”.

After further requests were also turned down, Thatcher’s private secretary Nigel Wicks wrote to Sir Robert in 1986 saying that she was “most disappointed that Mr Savile’s name has not been recommended”. He added: “She wonders how many more times his name is to be pushed aside, especially in view of all the great work he had done for Stoke Mandeville [hospital].”

Savile would later be found to have abused 63 people connected to Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Thatcher finally got her way when Savile was eventually knighted in 1990 – although, in Hannan’s recalling of events, this was nothing to do with his heroine and all down to a then little-known 27-year-old legal officer for the campaign group Liberty, Keir Starmer!