DEPUTY Labour leader Angela Rayner has refused to apologise for an attack on what she called the “scum” in the UK Government.
She said the remarks were made “post-watershed” at an event for Labour activists and she would only apologise if Prime Minister Boris Johnson said sorry for his past comments “that are homophobic, that are racist, that are misogynistic”.
On Sky News she defended the attack – delivered at a reception at Labour’s Brighton conference on Saturday – stressing it was levelled at ministers rather than Tory voters.
“Anyone who leaves children hungry during a pandemic and can give billions of pounds to their mates on WhatsApp, I think that was pretty scummy,” she said.
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Labour former shadow chancellor John McDonnell voiced opposition to Sir Keir Starmer’s reforms of leadership elections and suggested allies of the leader have a “pathological fear” of party members.
The MP on the left of the party told Sky’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday: “I don’t think actually we need a change in the rule, but if it goes through, to be honest, we’ll work with it, it won’t prevent a left-winger coming forward, as far as I’m concerned.
“But I don’t think it’s necessary and I would oppose it this morning if I had a vote, definitely.”
Asked if he believes it will go through, he said: “I think it will be touch and go, to be honest.
“I think there are some people – maybe around Keir as well, I don’t think it’s Keir himself – who have a pathological fear of our members.
“Trust the people. Don’t have your shenanigans where you’re trying to restrict the role of members. In fact, when Keir stood for leader he said he was going to engage with members more and members would have more of a role – that’s why people feel this is a bit of a step backwards and he hasn’t been really straight.”
Asked how he felt being described as “scum” by Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner, Grant Shapps (above) told Sky’s Trevor Phillips: “It’s absolutely appalling. There’s no place in public life for that sort of language, that sort of behaviour.
“I saw that she had described herself as someone who wanted to see a kinder politics back in 2019, I’m very sorry to see that that has disappeared.
“I watched your interview and literally wondered to myself, ‘is she talking about me?’ I’m just not clear.”
When Phillips clarified that Rayner was talking about Cabinet ministers including the Transport Secretary, Shapps added Rayner should “just apologise instead of talking around the subject”.
Labour former shadow chancellor McDonnell defended deputy leader Rayner’s tirade against a “bunch of scum – homophobic, racist, misogynistic” in the Tory party.
The MP told Sky’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday: “We’ve all been there, late at night, getting very angry about what’s going on. What I like about Angie Rayner is that she’s human.
“She may well drop herself in it, just as I have time and time again, but she’s human and she has human emotions and when you get angry about something sometimes the language that you use might be over the top.
“In my community at the moment I’ve got large numbers of people who are fearful because they’re going to lose £20 off their Universal Credit, they’re going to be thrust into poverty with children – no wonder she’s angry.
“So sometimes your language gets ahead of you, but deep down she’s expressing the anger many of us feel.
“We have to be disciplined and all of us have to bear that in mind, we need to bring people with us rather than turn them off, but we’re expressing human emotion here and sometimes you don’t get the language right.”
Rayner said she was shocked by the level of abuse aimed at female politicians and it was a “concern” that MP Rosie Duffield (above) felt unable to attend the party’s conference.
Canterbury MP Duffield has faced abuse and accusations of being “transphobic” because of her stance on trans issues.
“That is a concern of mine, that Rosie didn’t feel safe to attend conference,” Rayner told Sky News.
The deputy leader said she had personally received “many” death threats, adding: “What I have been shocked by, especially my female colleagues – and that’s Conservative female MPs as well – is the level of misogynist abuse they get.”
She promised “robust” action against any Labour member who targets Duffield.
“Rosie deserves our full support and protection against that and she would get that. If she had come to conference we would have risk-assessed and made sure that she had every bit of support that she needed to be here.”
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