Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting offered a defiant defence of Labour’s controversial attack ads against Rishi Sunak – vowing that there is “more to come” from the opposition.
The frontbencher said the accusation that the Tory prime minister did not think child sex abusers should be in prison was “not a mistake”, despite the major row now engulfing Sir Keir Starmer’s party.
Mr Streeting said he had to “assume” Mr Sunak did not believe in jailing child sex abusers based on the record of the Conservative government – risking inflaming internal divisions on the “gutter politics” strategy.
Speaking to the Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme, Mr Streeting was asked whether he believes Mr Sunak actually thinks that people who have sexually assaulted children should not go to prison.
Mr Streeting told stand-in host Sir Trevor Phillips: “I’d like to believe that the answer is no but look at the figures ... Why is he allowing this to happen? And it’s perfectly reasonable to challenge a Conservative prime minister on the abysmal failure of 13 years of Conservative government.”
Pressed again on whether he believes Mr Sunak doesn’t think child sex abusers should be in prison, Mr Streeting said: “Well, I have to assume that he thinks that, because otherwise it’s either that or incompetence, isn’t it?”
The Labour frontbencher added: “Either he thinks it, which is bad, or he doesn’t think and isn’t doing anything about it, which is equally bad. Labour is absolutely right to take the gloves off.”
On whether the advert was a mistake, the shadow health secretary said: “I don’t think it was a mistake at all. I absolutely stand by Labour’s ad – and there’s more to come. There’s more to come.”
A major dispute has enveloped Sir Keir’s party since social media ads accused the PM of failing to send child sex abusers to prison, being soft on gun crime and suggesting thieves should not be punished.
Labour MPs are expected to confront the leadership about the sex abuse ad at a showdown meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) on Monday evening. While Sir Keir is not expected to attend, MPs will share their frustration with shadow cabinet ministers and top officials.
Left-wing Labour MP Barry Gardiner said engaging in a “brutal slugging match of abuse, oversimplification and cheap slogans” was both morally wrong and a “bad strategy”.
Writing for The Independent, he said: “If we blur the distinction between policy and person, we descend into the gutter. Child abuse is a sickening crime, not an instrument to be weaponised against a political opponent.”
Despite ex-home secretary David Blunkett and other senior figures within the party condemning the ads as “gutter politics”, Sir Keir has stood firmly by them, arguing that they are “highlighting the failures” of the Tory government.
The Independent understands that the disquiet goes beyond those on the left, with MPs loyal to Sir Keir using WhatsApp groups to discuss their “exasperation” about the strategy.
Labour general election candidates have suggested that voters prefer Tory slogans to those devised by Sir Keir’s team, according to the Telegraph.
Dr Jeevun Sandher, running for Labour in Loughborough, told a Labour in Communications event: “Think about ‘Take back control’ and ‘Get Brexit done’ – a three-word slogan that encapsulated an entire narrative? That is the bit that is missing, it’s the comms bit.”
Alex McIntyre, the Gloucester candidate, told the event: “Nuance is our enemy. Our immigration policy is a good example. We’ve got a five-step plan and that’s great, but the Conservatives’ slogan is ‘Stop the boats’. We really need to get that comms piece in place.”
The ad that accused Mr Sunak of not wanting to jail child sex abusers has caused more voters to think negatively of the Labour Party than a Tory poster that accused the Labour leader of being soft on crime, a new Opinium poll suggests.
The Labour advert made 17 per cent of voters feel less favourable about the Tories and 12 per cent feel less favourable to Labour, the poll for the Observer found. The Tory advert about Sir Keir being soft on come made 9 per cent feel less favourable about Labour and 2 per cent less positive about the Tories.
Meanwhile, it emerged that a glitch in Labour’s phone-banking system could have put data on the voting intentions of millions of Britons in local authority wards across the country at risk.
Labour’s Dialogue system, used by activists to make calls, was pulled for 48 hours and given additional security measures after The Guardian informed the party of potential breaches.
The newspaper reported that a glitch had meant data such as postcodes could have been combined with voting intentions to allow people to generate a list of millions of voters.
A Labour spokesperson said: “As soon as this question was brought to our attention, the system was taken down for investigation. The party takes the security of all personal information for which it is responsible extremely seriously.”
