Emily Thornberry provides scathing response to James Cleverly’s date-rape drug joke
Emily Thornberry has stated James Cleverly is “deeply misogynistic” and ought to be “thoroughly ashamed of himself” for joking about giving his spouse a date-rape drug.
The Shadow Attorney General stated it was a “really nasty and frightening joke”, as she responded: “Ha ha ha. That is not funny.” She stated Rishi Sunak wants “to have a good hard look” at himself after he determined to not punish the Home Secretary as he “considers the matter closed”. And she referred to as for a basic election now to provide the general public “an opportunity to do away with the whole thing of them”.
Asked on Good Morning Britain whether or not she thought the matter was closed, she stated: “It’s closed, is it? So the Home Secretary, the person who’s supposed to be responsible for the security of all of us and that’s half of us are women, hello, is such a misogynist that he thinks that it’s okay to make a joke about the idea that he can’t have a relationship with women or have sex with women without drugging them first. Ha ha ha. That is not funny. That is a really nasty and frightening joke and he should be thoroughly ashamed of himself.”
Mr Cleverly has been facing calls to resign after the Mirror revealed he joked at a Downing Street reception about spiking his wife’s drink with a date-rape drug. He told female guests that “just a little little bit of Rohypnol in her drink each night time” was “probably not unlawful if it is solely just a little bit”. His sick remarks got here simply hours after his Home Office introduced plans to crack down on spiking.
Ms Thornberry stated Mr Cleverly is “well out of touch with real people living their lives day to day” if he thinks jokes about spiking are humorous. “I have to say if they think the matter is closed, then they need to have a good hard look at themselves. I mean, what it is is we have a Home Secretary who’s responsible for the security of all of us,” Ms Thornberry said.
“That includes women, hello, that includes young women, that includes young women who if they themselves haven’t had their drinks spiked they have friends who have, who feel deeply insecure when they go out because of this.”
Speaking to LBC, Ms Thornberry said the public should be able to go to the polls to kick the Tories out of No10. “I think he’s deeply misogynistic and half the population are women. I think that we should have a general election and get a chance to get rid of the whole lot of them,” she stated. “It’s not funny to say I can only have a relationship with women if I drugged them… And if you’re Home Secretary then you are well out of touch with real people living their lives day to day and I think it shows a level of misogyny that I have not seen for a very long time and it’s disgraceful.”
Mr Cleverly won’t be punished for his comments, it was confirmed yesterday. Asked about Mr Sunak’s stance on the row, the PM’s deputy spokeswoman said: “It was proper that the Home Secretary apologised for what I understood to be feedback made throughout a non-public dialog. The Prime Minister considers the matter closed and he and the Home Secretary are centered on the motion that the Government is taking to sort out spiking and shield ladies and women.”
Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence Alex Davies-Jones accused Mr Sunak of having “an absence of management, accountability and integrity” in his Government, adding: “The nation deserves so significantly better.”
TV star Carol Vorderman hit out on social media on the “‘Rohypnol Comedian’ Cleverly”, as she said Tory MPs often “lash out” at her with “misogynistic insults”. Her put up got here after Tory minister Johnny Mercer accused her and his Labour election rival Fred Thomas of main “s*** lonely lives”. The Veterans’ Minister hit out at them after they shared figures revealing a rise in homelessness among armed forces veterans.
He claimed they were “intentionally deceptive” the public “as a result of that makes your s*** lonely life really feel higher”. He went on to rant at Ms Vorderman, who he has clashed with before: “No one regular actually cares about your view. They suppose you are mad. I’m altering veterans lives What I got here into politics to do.”
Ms Vorderman quoted the Mirror’s article concerning the row and stated: “Many Tory MPs lash out at me, normally with misogynistic insults. QUESTION: With ‘Rohypnol Comedian; Cleverly nonetheless in put up, will we now have the bottom grade of politician ever?”
