The home secretary is facing calls to resign after making jokes about spiking his wife’s drink with a date rape drug at a Downing Street reception.
James Cleverly apologised for making the remarks just hours after the Home Office announced plans to crack down on spiking – putting drugs into another person’s drink or directly into their body without their knowledge.
But campaigners said his comments were likely to be “upsetting and triggering” to victims of spiking and sexual assault, and called for an overhaul of attitudes that normalised “banter” about date rape and coercive control.
Cleverly told guests at a Downing Street reception that “a little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night” was “not really illegal if it’s only a little bit”, the Sunday Mirror reported.
He also laughed that the secret to a long marriage was making sure your spouse was “someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there”.
Conversations at Downing Street receptions are usually understood to be off the record but the Sunday Mirror said it broke convention because of Cleverly’s position and the subject.
A spokesperson for the home secretary said: “In what was always understood as a private conversation, James, the home secretary, tackling spiking made what was clearly meant to be an ironic joke – for which he apologises.”
But Cleverly’s remarks have detracted from the government’s messaging on spiking and sparked calls for the home secretary to resign. Jemima Olchawski, the chief executive of leading women’s rights charity the Fawcett Society, said the comments were “sickening”.
“We know that ‘banter’ is the excuse under which misogyny is allowed to thrive. How can we trust [Cleverly] to seriously address violence against women and girls?” she said. “We deserve better than this from our lawmakers and he should resign.”
Alex Davies-Jones, the shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, said: “‘It was a joke’ is the most tired excuse in the book and no one is buying it. If the home secretary is serious about tackling spiking, and violence against women and girls, then that requires a full cultural change. The ‘banter’ needs to stop and it has to start at the top.”
Police receive an average of 561 reports of spiking a month, with the majority being made by women, typically after incidents in or near bars and nightclubs, according to a Home Office report. Between May 2022 and April 2023, there were 6,732 reports of spiking in England and Wales – including 957 reported incidents of needle spiking.
Ministers stopped short of making spiking a specific crime earlier this week, but pledged a variety of measures to tackle the issue, including training door staff to spot potential perpetrators and victims, and investing in research into spiking testing kits to help venues and police quickly detect if someone’s drink has been spiked.
Anna Birley, from the group Reclaim These Streets, which campaigns for better safety for women, said that Cleverly should do more than apologise.
“Women cannot trust this government to keep them safe while there is a home secretary who thinks sexual assault is funny,” she said. “Women’s safety is no joke, and a government serious about tackling violence against women and girls would have a zero-tolerance approach to misogyny from its frontbench.”
She added that by making the remarks and minimising complaints about them the home secretary was contributing to rape culture. “It’s not enough to apologise – James Cleverly should be deeply ashamed and needs to hand in his resignation letter,” she said.
The comments were also likely to upset many of the victims that the new policies set out to help, said Katie Russell, CEO and co-founder of Support After Rape and Sexual Violence Leeds.
“I think the fact that he felt these comments were appropriate to make, even in the spirit of jest, in such a public and official capacity really reflects how seriously rape culture still has a grip on our society,” she said.
“The comments themselves were appalling and could be very upsetting, triggering and retraumatising for anyone who’s experienced drug rape, drugging or sexual violence of any kind – which is very many people.”
But Cleverly had also made comments alluding to coercive control, she added. “Again, that is not a topic that anybody should be joking about, certainly not someone representing us as an elected official and a senior member of government.”
