Keir Starmer predictably spent the entirety of his allotted questions at PMQs posturing about harassment and violence against women. It's not clear where his concerns were prior to the weaponisation and exploitation of Sarah Everard's death, but what is abundantly clear now is his party has shamelessly leapt on the media-driven bandwagon.
A very misleading tweet put out by Labour last night suggested that the Tory government had 'decriminalised' rape. To back up this claim, the tweet highlighted government statistics showing that of 55,000 reported rapes in 2019-20 less than 2,000 resulted in criminal charges.
This is a shameful statistic, but it does not amount to decriminalisation in any sense. Only five per cent of burglaries result in criminal charges, but are Labour saying that burglary has been decriminalised? Of course not, because burglary is not the big news story of the moment.
Unfortunately for Starmer his own track record on crime, particularly sex crimes, is far from desirable. He was Director of Public Prosecutions when thousands of young girls were being groomed and raped in northern towns. Where were his concerns for the well-being of vulnerable females then - or since for that matter?
In 2012, when he was still DPP, he received a letter of complaint regarding a perceived watering down of legal guidelines in rape cases. Who wrote that letter? None other than Emily Thornberry - Shadow Attorney General in the Shadow Cabinet of Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party. In a press release at that time, the actions of the CPS are also criticised by former Labour MP Vera Baird.
Click below to view the press release.
Well, well, well. The hypocrisy is staggering.
