Labour respond to ‘gutter politics’ controversy – by posting another Rishi Sunak attack ad

The Labour Party doesn’t seem to care if you thought their attack ad suggesting Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, does not want convicted child sex offenders to go to prison was “gutter politics” – as they’ve just released another.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party received widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum on Thursday after posting a graphic, which also claimed that “under the Tories, 4,500 adults convicted of sexually assaulting under 16s served no prison time”.

Lawyers pointed out that sentencing decisions are a matter for judges, not politicians, and others noted the statistic implies it covers data since 2010 – and Mr Sunak has only been PM since October.

Despite calls for Labour to remove the graphic, it’s still online at the time of writing, and shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell defended the ad on Sky News by saying she stands by “what this tweet and this campaign is trying to highlight”.

"What I stand by is what that graphic is trying to show, which is that the prime minister of our country is responsible for the criminal justice system of our country and currently that criminal justice system is not working,” she said.

Ms Powell also confirmed she was “comfortable” with Labour using a “standardised graphic” Mr Sunak has used before to highlight the issue, but conceded the ad “won’t be to everybody’s taste”.

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You’d think amid all the backlash, that Labour might think twice about releasing a similar attack ad a day later, and give it some further thought…

Clearly not.

In fact, HuffPost reports Labour has met with strategists from the US Democratic Party and Australia’s Labor Party to discuss political messaging, with a source telling the outlet: “They told us to ignore the wailings of the people who expect you to be kind losers and fight as viciously as the Conservatives do.”

On Friday, Labour shared another graphic of Mr Sunak – this time with the text: “Do you think an adult convicted of possessing a gun with intent to harm should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn’t.

“Under the Tories, 937 adults convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to harm served no prison time.

“Labour will lock up dangerous gunmen.”

Much like their post on jailing child sex offenders, the tweet has since had a ‘Community Note’ added to it – a Twitter feature whereby users can add additional context to a post that “people might want to know”.

It reads: “Tweet implies the PM doesn’t support prison sentences for possession of a gun with intent to harm. Current maximum sentences for all firearms offences are custodial.

“Sentencing in individual criminal cases is the responsibility of the independent judiciary, not the PM.”

Of course, Labour opting to double down and release another attack ad – when the last one went so well – has only further angered Twitter users:

Amid all the fallout over the graphic, the Conservatives’ Twitter account has clapped back by retweeting their own ad shared by Croydon South MP and policing minister Chris Philp.

In their retort, they write Sir Keir and Labour have “voted against … whole life sentences for child murders; preventing early release of sex offenders; tougher sentences for road-blocking protestors; keeping rapists in prison for longer; doubling sentences for assaulting NHS workers”.

UK political discourse is just one big mess at the moment, then!

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