Wes Streeting has vigorously defended Labour’s highly personal attack adverts targeting Rishi Sunak, saying the party was “absolutely right to take the gloves off” and that more such campaign tactics were to come.
Labour has faced considerable criticism, and some doubts from within the party, over a series of online ads which began with one claiming that Rishi Sunak does not believe people who sexually abuse children should be sent to prison.
The advert, and subsequent ones highlighting conviction rates for crimes such as possession of a gun, target the prime minister personally for statistics dating back to 2010, five years before he became an MP.
Asked whether he personally believed Sunak did not want child abusers to be jailed, the shadow health secretary told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday show: “I have to assume that he thinks that, because otherwise it’s either that or incompetence, and neither is very good.
“Either he thinks it, which is bad, or he doesn’t think it but isn’t doing anything about it, which is equally bad.”
Questioned over qualms about the tone of the adverts by some within the party, Streeting said: “Labour is absolutely right to take the gloves off.”
On whether the advert was a mistake, he said: “I don’t think it was a mistake at all. I absolutely stand by Labour’s ad. And there’s more to come.
“We are robustly holding the government to account for 13 years of failure. Rishi Sunak doesn’t get away with coming in at the last minute to replace yet another failing Conservative prime minister to pretend that somehow he’s a clean slate, that he’s different from everything that’s come before.”
An Opinium poll for the Observer on the advert attacking Sunak over paedophiles not being jailed showed mixed results, with 17% of those polled saying it left them feeling less favourable about the Conservatives and 12% feeling less favourable towards Labour.
Keir Starmer said in an article for the Daily Mail last week that he stood by the adverts and would “make absolutely zero apologies for being blunt”. “I stand by every word Labour has said on the subject, no matter how squeamish it might make some feel,” he said.
Others, including the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, have not publicly endorsed the approach, and the party’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, opted to not share the campaign on social media.
