Kemi Badenoch has said she would “absolutely not apologise” for claiming Labour was being branded a “paedo defenders party” during Prime Minister’s Questions.
During their weekly exchange on Wednesday, the Conservative leader challenged Sir Keir Starmer directly, stating he should “ask why his backbenchers are saying that they’re being called the ‘paedo defenders party’”.
Her controversial jibe followed a report in The Times, which detailed how female Labour MPs had informed Sir Keir earlier this month that voters had “screamed” the phrase at them in the street, linking it to the Peter Mandelson scandal.
Ms Badenoch’s remarks have since drawn significant criticism from Labour MP Natalie Fleet, who was groomed as a teenager, and Katie Amess, the daughter of murdered Tory MP Sir David Amess.
Ms Fleet told LBC the use of the term was “just really disgusting” and suggested it had put Labour activists in danger.
She said: “There are hundreds of thousands of political activists, Labour and otherwise, that want to make the country a better place and to just throw language like that around because it might get you some extra votes is just really disgusting.”
Ms Amess said it had been “very inflammatory” and called for Ms Badenoch to apologise, adding: “It’s not the way that our politicians should be talking, unfortunately.”
Appearing on a phone-in on LBC on Wednesday evening, Ms Badenoch stood by her comments, saying: “I will absolutely not apologise.”
She added: “I remember when Keir Starmer and the Labour Party were putting out posters saying Rishi Sunak was supporting paedophiles so that they wouldn’t go to prison.
“These people know how to dish it but they don’t want to take it.”
Ms Badenoch declined to say whether she thought Labour was a party of “paedo defenders”, saying: “It wasn’t my words, a female Labour MP used that language.”
She added: “Nobody would be calling them that if they held themselves to higher standards.”
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