DOWNING Street refused to say that Boris Johnson regretted using “sexist language” in his journalistic career after the Prime Minister demanded an end to “everyday sexism”.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, he said: “We have to address the fundamental issue of the casual everyday sexism and apathy that fails to address the concerns of women – that is the underlying issue.”
Johnson’s press secretary Allegra Stratton said the Prime Minister was being “candid and frank with the country about the measures and the steps we are all going to have to take to make sure that women and girls feel safer and more comfortable on the streets of their own country”.
But Stratton and the Prime Minister’s official spokesman sidestepped questions about Johnson’s journalism.
In a Spectator article in 1995, he said the children of single mothers were “ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate” and called for action to “restore women’s desire to be married”, while in 2019, court documents revealed he described former prime minister David Cameron as a “girly swot”.
Asked if the Prime Minister regretted some of his comments, Stratton said: “Women across the country now want real action and will be pleased to hear their Prime Minister evidently understanding that what too many of them experience on our streets at night – and sometimes in the day as well – is something being taken seriously at the top of Government.”
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Johnson agreed with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer that the death of Sarah Everard should be a turning point.
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