Wes Streeting defends Keir Starmer after Labour 'attack ads' expose leader's hypocrisy
Wes Streeting has defended Labour's 'attack ads' on Rishi Sunak
GB News
Wes Streeting has hit back at complaints about Labour's "attack ads" on Rishi Sunak as he defends the campaign and says Labour will continue "to go after the Prime Minister".
The Shadow Health Secretary told Camilla Tominey that Keir Starmer "fully supports" the controversial campaign but was left clueless after being pushed on previous complaints from Emily Thornberry about Starmer during his time as The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
In 2012, Thornberry alleged that Starmer had "weakened" rape prosecution guidelines over the use of specially trained prosecutors in rape cases.
Speaking on GB News, Streeting said he "had no idea about the letter" and claimed Starmer "had a proud record as the nation's leading prosecutor".
Complaints were made about Keir Starmer during his time as The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)
PA
Camilla grilled Streeting over the issue saying: "Starmer's got some brass neck, hasn't he? He was the DPP in 2012 when Emily Thornbury complained about the fact that he had weakened rape prosecution guidelines.
"He's then on the Sentencing Council, which agreed that all paedophiles should not be put in prison. So why on earth is Keir Starmer in a position to lecture anyone on being tough on paedophiles and rapists?"
Streeting responded: "Well, I think to be fair to Keir Starmer, he had a proud record as the nation's leading prosecutor of trying to improve.
"The prosecutions of people who are committing violence against women and girls, that was a priority that he set as Director of Public Prosecutions."
Labour has been widely criticised for their PR campaign which suggests the Prime Minister is opposed to jailing sex offenders.
The opposition posted a photo to Twitter saying: “Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn’t.”
Streeting defended the posters as he explained that Labour is holding the Prime Minister to account "for his record of failure".
"He's [Keir Starmer] been absolutely robust in saying that we are going to go after the Prime Minister for his record of failure.
"We've done it on crime, we've done it on the economy this week, and in the coming week we're going to do it again on the NHS.
"I think the conservatives record of failure is utterly appalling. And anyone who looks at those ads and feels offended on Rishi Sunak's behalf should be offended on the behalf of victims of crime."
But a survey by Omnisis has now suggested that the posters have also gone down poorly with the public.
Their poll revealed that 20 per cent of people said this type of ad has no place in politics, while 17 per cent said the ads were disturbing.
Streeting added: "I think what Keir Starmer is rightly doing is accepting that as politicians, parliament and government has a responsibility for making sure we've got an effective criminal justice system that makes that is on the side of victims and brings perpetrators to justice and after 13 years of failure."