Furious Labour MPs are on a collision course with Sir Keir Starmer’s team over the “brutal” and “dehumanising” anti-Tory attack adverts ahead of a showdown meeting on Monday.
In a row that shows no sign of dying down, MPs are expected to confront the leadership about the online poster that claimed Rishi Sunak did not think child sex abusers should go to prison.
The Independent understands that the disquiet extends beyond those on the left, with MPs loyal to Sir Keir using WhatsApp groups to discuss their “unease” and “exasperation” about the strategy.
Labour MP Barry Gardiner said engaging in a “brutal slugging match of abuse, oversimplification and cheap slogans” was both morally wrong and “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.”
Mr Gardiner, former shadow trade secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, added: “Tactically it’s also a mistake. It potentially undermines Labour’s own credibility. If people don’t recognise the monster we paint, they will not believe our valid criticisms of [Mr Sunak’s] policies.”
Sir Keir is not expected to attend a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) on Monday evening – but members of his shadow cabinet and other senior officials will be there to defend the ads to Labour MPs who are uneasy about the move into “gutter” politics.
One Labour MP said: “Labour has now lost any ability to hold the moral high ground when the public are looking for something better. The Tories are thinking, ‘great, you’re on our territory’.”
They added: “If you’ve made your shtick being above the fray, then rolling around in the gutter means you’ve taken away a key strength. It will come back to bite us.”
Ahead of Monday’s meeting, another Labour MP said: “We want reassurance that the attack ads may continue, but they are accurate and not dog whistle. No one has a problem with attacking the PM on his record. I hope lessons will be learned and that the ads will remain on the side of truth.”
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said on Sunday that Labour’s now-notorious attack ad on child sex abuse has not been a “mistake at all” and there is “more to come”.
Mr Streeting – pressed on he believes Mr Sunak actually thinks that people who have sexually assaulted children should not go to prison – said: “Well, I have to assume that he thinks that…. because otherwise it’s either that or incompetence, isn’t it?”
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.”
Earlier this week Sir Keir defied Labour critics of the child sex abusers ad by saying he stands by “every word” – regardless of how “squeamish” it made some in his own party feel.
The Independent understands shadow cabinet members were uncomfortable with the tactics, having been left in the dark about the Twitter messaging. But senior figures – including deputy leader Angela Rayner and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves – came out to defend the ads this week.
Labour strategists are said to be delighted at the fuss the child sex abuse caused – with the initial Twitter poster gaining 22 million views on Twitter. “This has been a triumph –we’ve been talking about what we want to talk about,” one insider told The Times.
Despite the defiance, a planned ad accusing Mr Sunak of effectively “decriminalising” rape was quietly dropped last week amid the furore. But the party is thought to be keen to use the same format to attack Mr Sunak again in the future.
A Labour spokesperson said Sir Keir “absolutely” stood by all the Twitter ads, adding: “Whatever attacks the Tories try back, we’re not going to shy away from showing how Keir has spent his time fighting criminals and standing up for victims.”
However, polling guru Professor John Curtice questioned the effectiveness of the campaign. The elections expert said attack ads only “resonate” if they tell voters “things that they think they already know”.
“Like the one showing Ed Miliband in Alex Salmond’s pocket – it expressed something people already thought. But trying to convince voters something that’s counterintuitive is difficult,” he explained.
Mark Lucas of Silverfish Films – who made adverts for Labour between 1996 and 2010 – welcomed Labour toughening up because “whimpering at middle-class dinner parties” would not win them elections.
The filmmaker added: “There have been a lot of people in Labour psychologically addicted to moral superiority. There’s a case that these ads are a good thing in forcing Labour to live in the real world a bit more. But I’d like to see them use wit and humour a bit more.”
David Blunkett, the hardline New Labour home secretary, strongly condemned the child sex abuse ad, arguing that Labour was better than “baseless allegations and spurious slurs”.
But Jack Straw, another home secretary in Tony Blair’s government, has defended Sir Keir, saying the Tories “squeal like stuck pigs” when they are on the receiving end of attacks.
