THE Home Secretary was left fuming with a BBC presenter as she questioned him on previous accusations he had labelled an English town a “s***hole" during a session of PMQs.
During his appearance on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday morning, Mishal Husain grilled James Cleverly on a number of past remarks, including his use of the word “s***hole”.
The host said Cleverly had referred to Stockton North as a “s***hole” before he interrupted to say: “No, I didn’t. No I didn’t.”
The Home Secretary continued to deny the allegation and told the presenter that “you need to do better research”.
"You didn't use the word shithole?"@MishalHusain asks Home Secretary James Cleverly, who tells #R4Today he didn't refer to Stockton North using the phrase, but was 'referring to an individual'. pic.twitter.com/Xk2UzwBcTy
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) January 2, 2024
He explained: “I’ve made it very, very clear what I said. I was referring to an individual.”
Cleverly then admitted he had used the word “s***” but that what the presenter had accused him of was “completely wrong”.
He was left even more agitated when Husain said that other people had “heard different things”.
“You can’t keep doing that. Why did you make that last comment? I know what I said,” Cleverly replied.
READ MORE: James Cleverly dodges Michelle Mone question in BBC interview
He then added that other people could not have heard something different because he knew what he had said and because “that’s not how science works”.
‘Awful joke’
During his morning media round, Cleverly (below) also said he regrets the “joke” he made about drugging women and said he should not have made it.
At a No 10 event before Christmas, he joked about spiking his wife’s drink with a date rape drug just hours after announcing plans to crack down on the issue.
“I made a joke, it was an awful joke and I apologised immediately, but I’m absolutely committed and have been throughout my political career to the protection of women and girls,” he said.
“I’m absolutely undeterred from that focus and, you know, the people that work with me know my focus on this and I hope to be judged on my actions rather than my words, but I remain absolutely committed to the protection of women and girls.”
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