The CPS, an independent body, prosecutes criminal cases in England and Wales.

After the police investigate crimes and present their findings, the CPS decides whether to prosecute based on evidence and public interest.

Starmer was appointed head of the CPS in 2008 and held the role for five years. He became an MP in 2015.

The CPS was criticised for a decision not to proceed with a prosecution in Rochdale on the basis that it viewed the main victim as “unreliable” following an investigation between August 2008 and August 2009.

That decision was overturned later by Nazir Afzal in 2011 after being appointed by Starmer as the CPS chief prosecutor for north-west England.

Speaking to BBC Verify, Mr Afzal said that the view of prosecutors not to proceed to trial at the time was “if the police aren’t happy that she will give credible evidence then we’re not happy either”.

He went on to say that he had reviewed and reversed the decision as “I believed what she [the victim] was saying”.

But this is not the only instance where the CPS has faced criticism.

Prof Jay’s report into the Rotherham cases said the police would often cite the CPS as being unwilling to prosecute alleged perpetrators, but they said that it had been “much more helpful” later on.

A 2013 report from the Home Affairs Committee said, external that “unlike many other official agencies implicated in this issue”, the CPS had “readily admitted that victims had been let down by them and have attempted both to discover the cause of this systematic failure and to improve the way things are done so as to avoid a repetition of such events”.

It added: “Mr Starmer has striven to improve the treatment of victims of sexual assault within the criminal justice system throughout his term as Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).”

Maggie Oliver, a former Manchester detective who now campaigns for victims of child sex abuse, told BBC Verify that the CPS “bear a great deal of responsibility for the failures around this issue”, including bringing inadequate charges and blaming victims.

She added that while there was now much more awareness around the issue, “in my foundation we still see individual cases subjected to massive failures in the systems”.

We have been unable to find any direct criticism of Starmer personally in any of the reports on the scandal, nor can we identify any suggestions that he himself made any decisions not to prosecute.