James Cleverly has issued a grovelling apology for a joke he made about date rape drug Rohypnol on the day ministers introduced a crackdown on spiking.
The Home Secretary confronted calls to stop after it emerged he’d informed feminine feminine friends at a Downing Street occasion that “a little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night” was “not really illegal if it’s only a little bit”. He additionally laughed that the key to an extended marriage was making certain your partner was “someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there.”
This morning he stated he regretted making the comment concerning the date-rape drug and admitted it had prompted harm. He informed Sky News’ Kay Burley: “It was it was a joke that I made. And of course, you know, I regret it and I apologised immediately. That apology is heartfelt.”
It comes days after No10 stated Rishi Sunak considers the matter “closed”. It is unclear if he mentioned the comment with the Cabinet member as calls mounted for him to be punished.
Mr Cleverly’s apology went on: “I’m sorry, because it’s clearly caused hurt and that’s the last thing on it potentially distracted from the work that we were doing to tackle spike to help predominantly women who are victims of spiking and I regret that.”
The Home Secretary stated: “But I’m absolutely determined to continue the work which I’ve been doing for years, both as foreign secretary, and straightway as home secretary I told the department it is absolutely a priority for me to improve the protection of women and girls.”
He claimed his spouse had not been angered concerning the remarks and described her as an “amazing woman”.
It has now emerged {that a} report from Mr Cleverly’s personal division printed the identical day warned that spiking is typically carried out as a result of it’s seen as “funny” or a “joke”. The report, entitled “Understanding and tackling spiking”, said: “This is an invasive, upsetting and harmful crime. Perpetrated covertly and, as now we have seen, generally as a result of it’s seen as ‘funny’ or ‘a joke’. This just isn’t humorous, and we should be sure that message is obvious.”