Rishi Sunak brands Keir Starmer ‘Sir Softy’ who went easy on violent criminals while the country’s top prosecutor in spicy Prime Minister’s Questions clash on crime in the wake of Labour attack ads
- They squared off in the Commons amid an ongoing furore over attack adverts
Rishi Sunak branded Labour leader Keir Starmer ‘Sir Softy’ today as the leaders clashed over violent crime at Prime Minister’s Questions.
They squared off in the Commons amid an ongoing furore over attack adverts targeting the PM personally, including accusing him of being weak on tackling sex attackers.
Mr Sunak used today’s spicy session to hit back at Sir Keir, who was director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013, suggesting he had played a role in easing sentences for some of the worst offenders.
They clashed over the wider government record, with Sir Keir saying: ‘He’s living in another world to the rest of us. People waiting more than two days (from) an ambulance because they broke the NHS. Only one in a hundred rapists going to court because they broke the criminal justice system.
‘A record number of small boats crossing the Channel because they broke the asylum system. People can’t afford their bills, can’t get the police to investigate crimes, can’t get a doctors appointment. Does that really sound like pretty good shape to him?’
Mr Sunak replied: ‘What’s the record since 2010? Crime down by 50 per cent under the Conservative Government, 20,000 more police officers, we’ve given them more powers and we’ve toughened up sentencing – all opposed by Sir Softie over there.’
They clashed over the wider government record, with Sir Keir saying: ‘He’s living in another world to the rest of us. People waiting more than two days (from) an ambulance because they broke the NHS. Only one in a hundred rapists going to court because they broke the criminal justice system.’
Mr Sunak replied: ‘What’s the record since 2010? Crime down by 50 per cent under the Conservative Government, 20,000 more police officers, we’ve given them more powers and we’ve toughened up sentencing – all opposed by Sir Softie over there.’
The initial ad, which accused the Prime Minister of not wanting child sex abusers to go to prison, caused unease among the shadow Cabinet.
Sir Keir Starmer said the Prime Minister either does not use the same public services ‘as the rest of us’, or he ‘simply can’t see the damage they have done to our country’.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, the Labour Leader said: ‘Either the Prime Minister doesn’t use the same public services as the rest of us or he simply can’t see the damage they have done to our country.’
Sir Keir also said that in 2019, a ‘convicted people smuggler threw boiling water over a prison officer, leaving him with first degree burns’.
He went on: ‘The prison officer said it felt like acid, his face was on fire. His attacker was found guilty, received a prison sentence. Quite right in my view. Does the Prime Minister agree?’
Rishi Sunak said it was ‘this Government that passed the Sentencing Act last year’, adding: ‘It toughened up sentences and the average custodial sentence has now increased since 2010 by almost two thirds. For child sex abusers is up by 15 months and for rapists is up by two years.
‘And when our Sentencing Act ended the automatic early release of offenders who pose a danger to the public it was the Labour Party who voted against it.’
The initial ad, which accused the Prime Minister of not wanting child sex abusers to go to prison, caused unease among the shadow Cabinet.
Labour is hoping to benefit in England’s May 4 local elections as the Tories continue to lag in national polls.
Sir Keir Starmer’s latest attack advert blasted Akshata Murty’s use of non-dom tax status while living in Downing Street at the same time millions of Britons were struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.
The Twitter post highlighted analysis of official data and said that, under the Tories, ‘4,500 adults convicted of sexually assaulting children under-16 served no prison time’.
It shared a photo of the Prime Minister alongside the words: ‘Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn’t.’
Senior figures including former home secretary Lord David Blunkett called for it to be withdrawn, saying Labour is better than ‘gutter’ politics.
Last week the Mail revealed this week, between 2011 and 2013 he attended 21 meetings of the Sentencing Council at which guideline tariffs for such offences were set.
In 2012, Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service inspectorate found that, under Starmer, incompetence by CPS prosecutors was causing the collapse of an estimated 63,000 cases a year.
A highly critical report by the Policy Exchange think-tank the same year found that £25million a year was being wasted because one in 10 cases (another 88,000 a year) was being abandoned.
Despite calling Sunak soft on child sex offenders, Sir Keir failed during his reign to do much to increase conviction rates, either. The year he joined, the CPS achieved 3,011 convictions from 4,029 prosecutions. When he left, the figures were 3,070 and 4,051.
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