Labour MP Jess Phillips says her party’s controversial attack adverts against Rishi Sunak last week didn’t go far enough. The advert accuses the PM of personally going easy on paedophiles, and was accused of ‘dog-whistle’ politics.
But shadow minister for domestic violence Phillips who thinks the Tories have broken the justice system, told the Political Party podcast she would have “gladly defended” it. “What’s everyone bitching and moaning about?” she said, adding it’s “not hard enough for me”.
Sir Keir Starmer staunchly defended the message, writing: “I make absolutely zero apologies for being blunt about this. I stand by every word Labour has said on the subject, no matter how squeamish it might make some feel.” He added “Rishi Sunak and successive Tory governments have let criminals get away with it because they don’t get it.”
The ad attracted criticism from some party members. Labour MP Barry Gardiner 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.”
Phillips’s senior, shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, did not endorse the ad. Labour sources said she was not consulted in advance and “had nothing to do with it.”
