'Piece of Scum': UK Labour Deputy Leader Lashes Out at Tories
11:42 GMT 26.09.2021 (Updated: 15:16 GMT 28.05.2023)
© REUTERS / HENRY NICHOLLS
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At an event for UK Labour members that was held on Saturday, the party's deputy leader Angela Rayner appeared to get a tad bit emotional, calling the Conservatives "scum" and accusing them of racism and homophobia.
When speaking to Sky News on Sunday about her emotional "street language" tirade against the Conservative Party, Labour's Angela Rayner refused to apologise for her words.
According to her, she was trying to passionately convey the "anger and frustration that people feel when you have a prime minister, who has said things and not apologised that are racist, that are misogynistic, that are homophobic, that has given billions of pounds of taxpayers' money to their mates and literally wasted that money".
Earlier, The Daily Mirror reported that Rayner, when attending a Saturday Labour meeting, lashed out at the Tories over the party's coronavirus response and many other issues.
"We cannot get any worse than a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute vile [inaudible] Banana Republic, vile, nasty, Etonian [inaudible] piece of scum", she said.
Rayner: “I’m sick of shouting from the sidelines, and i bet youse lot are too. We cannot get any worse than a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, mysoginistic, absolute pile …of banana republic…Etonian…piece of scum…and I held back a little…that I have ever seen in my life” pic.twitter.com/YzDAKlWflt
— Mikey Smith (@mikeysmith) September 25, 2021
Elaborating on her comments to Sky News, Rayner outlined that she did not mean to call the voters who supported the Conservatives "scum", only referring to the politicians themselves. She remained adamant in her intention not to apologise as long as the Tories, along with their leader, PM Boris Johnson, do not do the same.
"If the Prime Minister wants to apologise and remove himself from those comments he’s made that are homophobic, racist and misogynistic then I will apologise for calling him scummy", Rayner insisted.
The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said on the BBC that he "would not have used" such language, but said that it was up to Rayner whether or not to apologise for what she said.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, in his turn, insisted that her remarks were "appalling" and that she should apologise.
"There's just no place in public life for that sort of language, that sort of behaviour," he told Sky News.
This is not the first time when the Conservatives, and particularly Boris Johnson, are challenged for their language. The prime minister has previously compared burka-wearing Muslim women to "letterboxes" and said that Malaysian women should only go to university in order to find candidates for marriage. When it comes to the LGBTQ community, he called gay men "bum boys". He also received criticism for some of his other comments made in the past that were deemed sexist or homophobic.
However, according to Johnson himself, the comments were "wholly satirical", saying that he would refrain from such offensive language "now that [he is] Prime Minister".
