Senior Labour MPs clashed over the party’s controversial attack ad claiming Rishi Sunak doesn’t believe in imprisoning child sex abusers in a feisty TV exchange.
Frontbencher Lisa Nandy got into a heated confrontation with left-winger John McDonnell – who served with her in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet – on the social media ads.
Ms McDonnell told Ms Nandy“this is not you” during the row on ITV’s Peston, arguing that Labour was wrong “personalise” the issues.
Ms Nandy responded that she will “not take lessons from you about civility in politics” – citing the antisemitism row that engulfed Labour during the Corbyn era.
Discussing the ad – which claimed Mr Sunak doesn’t think child abusers should go to jail – Mr McDonnell said: “I know you Lisa, this is not you. This is not you.”
The ex-shadow chancellor added: “You never go for the person in this individual way. You go for the facts and you go for the policy issue.”
Ms Nandy responded that “the facts are there”, before Mr McDonnell said the ad was “unacceptable”, adding: “Take Michelle Obama’s advice – when they go low … we go high. We’re better than them – you know that and you are as well.”
The shadow levelling up secretary said: “Can I just gently say to you, John, first of all, I don’t accept that the prime minister of this country shouldn’t take responsibility.”
“Secondly, can I just say to you, you were a senior member of the Labour party when we were found to have breached equalities law by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and brought us to our lowest point in our 100 year history.”
Ms Nandy, shadow energy secretary under Mr Corbyn, told Mr McDonnell: “So I will not take lessons from you about civility in politics.”
McDonnell fired back: “I’m not trying to lessen you or anything like that ... on that [antisemitism] issue, we did address it and we held our hands up to go and address it as well, including me, and I apologised.
“But on this, you don’t do this. This is not Labour politics. We’re better than this and we can argue and win the case without personalising it around an individual that way because it undermines our argument.”
Senior Labour figures, including former home secretary David Blunkett, has accused the leadership of sliding into “gutter politics”.
But Sir Keir Starmer 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.
Mr Corbyn said earlier this week that the anti-Sunak attack ad was “bad news all around” and saying something “unbelievably awful” about an opponent was “not very not very good or very sensible”.
New Labour architect Peter Mandelson has backed Labour’s controversial attack ad against Mr Sunak because the party can’t count on right-wing newspapers to “do it on their behalf”.
