Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner stands by her comments she made about Bioris Johnson during an event at her party’s conference. She is “happy to sit down” with the PM following criticism for calling him “scum”.
Ms Rayner took to Twitter on Monday, repeating accusations that Boris Johnson is “racist, homophobic and sexist”. She also posted images showing headlines where the prime minister refused to apologise for his controversial remarks. Ms Rayner says she is “very happy to apologise to him”, but only “if he withdraws his comments and apologises”.
Shadow trade secretary Emily Thornberry says Ms Rayner does have “evidence” to back up her accusations. But should “probably apologise” for using the word “scum”.
Meanwhile, Conservative Party co-chair Oliver Dowden implies it is an insult to voters, who have “heard the message loud and clear from Labour conference”. “If they support Conservative values or this government they are ‘scum'”. He says that his party would rather focus on “bringing people together and delivering for them” than “looking down our noses” at them.
What is the ‘scum’ row about?
The row started at a conference event on Saturday evening when Ms Rayner reportedly called Tory ministers “a bunch of scum”.
The Labour minister says she “will apologise when Boris apologises for saying the comments he has made, I will retract that he is scum”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says it is “not the language I would have used”, but he did not call on Ms Rayner to say sorry for her comments.
On Monday, Ms Rayner renewed her attack by posting headlines on Twitter about the prime minister. These showed him refusing to apologise over comments he said about gay men and Muslim women.
She also called on the prime minister to apologise for his remarks about single mums and likening them to living in the destitution of Victorian times. Mr Johnson also previously called the children of single mothers ‘ignorant and illegitimate’.
‘Heat of the moment’
Ms Rayner’s cabinet colleague, Ms Thornberry, thinks the comments may have initially came in the heat of the moment. The incident happened at a fringe meeting “where there may have been drink partaken [and] where it is noisy, rowdy”.
Ms Rayner was putting forward evidence of the prime minister’s racism and misogyny before calling him and his ministers ‘scum’.
Ms Thornberry thinks: “She probably shouldn’t have said ‘scum’ but the rest of it of course, there is evidence of”. She says if it were her, she would apologise for using that word. However, she believes Ms Rayner acted in the “heat of the moment” and can “understand the context of it”.
Ms Thornberry is also quick to downplay the events, saying: “I don’t think this is the biggest thing that has happened at party conference”.
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