Starmer ‘Stands by Every Word’ of Sunak Attack Ad After Backlash Within Labour Party

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer speaks to the media outside BBC Broadcasting House in London, on Jan. 15, 2023. (James Manning/PA Media)

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer says he “stands by every word” of an attack ad on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak which has led to a backlash within his own party.

On Thursday, Labour’s official Twitter account posted a picture of the prime minister and wrote: “Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn’t.”

The post went on to say: “Under the Tories 4,500 adults convicted of sexually assaulting children under 16 served no prison time. Labour will lock up dangerous child abusers.”

Two MPs on the left wing of the Labour Party—Diane Abbott and John McDonnell—criticised the post, which appears to have received mostly negative feedback on social media.

On Friday, shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell also refused to endorse the ad.

Critics have pointed out judges and magistrates, rather than the prime minister, are responsible for handing out sentences and say the figures Labour highlighted cover the period since 2010. Sunak only entered Parliament in 2015 and did not become prime minister until October last year.

But on Monday, Starmer told the Daily Mail: “I make absolutely zero apologies for being blunt about this. I stand by every word Labour has said on the subject. When 4,500 child abusers avoid prison, people don’t want more excuses from politicians. They want answers.”

Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions (DPP), claimed the Conservatives were “insulated” from the effects of crime and he added, “Rishi Sunak and successive Tory governments have let criminals get away with it because they don’t get it.”

Last week Labour was accused of a “vile and desperate” campaign strategy by Tory Deputy Chairman Lee Anderson, and SNP MP John Nicolson said they had “cheapened and debased” politics with the Twitter post.

Abbott, who was shadow home secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, said: “Sunak is responsible for lots of things. But sentencing is the responsibility of the judiciary. You would think a former DPP would know that.”

Starmer Refuses to Back Down and Calls Critics ‘Squeamish’

But Starmer has responded by saying he would attack the government’s record on crime, “no matter how squeamish it might make some feel.”

The Sunak attack ad has echoes of the 1988 U.S. presidential election campaign when the Republican candidate, then-Vice President George Bush, launched an ad emphasising Democrat candidate Michael Dukakis’s role in the release of convicted murderer Willie Horton on a weekend pass.

Horton went on to rob a couple at gunpoint and rape the woman, and the ad helped to fatally undermine Dukakis’s ill-fated run for the White House.

The Labour Party’s Sunak post follows analysis the party has carried out of Ministry of Justice data, but Twitter has since added a “context” label to the political party’s post, which is used when a post “may contain disputed or misleading information.”

It states the current sentencing guidelines for “this crime” have a maximum sentence of 14 years.

It added there is “no Conservative Party policy that plans to remove this.”

On Monday the shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, was challenged on the BBC Radio 4 “Today” programme over Starmer’s role as a member of the Sentencing Council when it set out guidelines in 2012 suggesting that child sex abusers should not automatically be jailed.

Asked if Starmer objected to those guidelines at the time, she said, “I don’t know the details of what the exact guidance is in relation to the Sentencing Council, but I do know this, that it is open to Parliament to set minimum and maximum sentences.”

Labour Will Not Fund More Prison Places

Thornberry said it should be the “default position” that an adult convicted of sexually assaulting a child would go to prison, but she then said Labour would not fund any more prison places, adding, “because we’re a party of optimism.”

“What we need to do is we need to look at it from the very beginning to the very end of the criminal justice system,” she added.

On Saturday the Conservative Party issued a statement attacking Starmer.

A spokesman said, “Since Sir Keir Starmer left the Sentencing Council, the average sentence for rape has increased to nearly 10 years’ imprisonment compared to eight years in 2010.”

He added: “Rapists also spend more of their sentence in prison now because the government ended automatic halfway release for serious sexual and violent offenders. Of course, being a human rights barrister, Sir Keir voted against this change.”

Local elections are taking place across England and Wales on May 4 and both main parties have put crime-fighting plans at the heart of their campaigns.

A general election is expected to be called before January 2025 and Starmer has made it clear that crime and anti-social behaviour will be a key part of Labour’s campaign.

PA Media contributed to this report.