Labour under fire over ad that suggests Sunak too lenient on child abusers

Tweet blaming PM for light sentencing goes down badly with MPs

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak this week promised a crackdown on grooming gangs targeting young women and girls. PA

Britain’s opposition Labour Party has been urged to withdraw an advert that suggested Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wanted child abusers to walk free.

Some Labour MPs criticised the poster, which was condemned as “gutter politics” by rival parties.

The advert billing Labour as “the party of law and order” was posted on its official Twitter account, amid campaigning for local elections on May 4.

Over a picture of Mr Sunak, it said: “Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn’t”.

It claimed 4,500 adults convicted of sexually assaulting children had walked free under Conservative governments.

Mr Sunak this week promised "political correctness" would not prevent a crackdown on grooming gangs, as Home Secretary Suella Braverman singled out British Pakistani men as culprits.

Critics said Labour's response was tasteless and suggested the image of the first British Asian prime minister played on racist stereotypes.

Some compared Labour’s advert to a misleading right-wing slur that Labour leader Keir Starmer failed to bring sex offender Jimmy Savile to justice when he was England’s chief prosecutor.

“This is not the sort of politics a Labour Party, confident of its own values and preparing to govern, should be engaged in,” said left-wing Labour MP John McDonnell.

“I say to the people who have taken the decision to publish this ad, please withdraw it. We, the Labour Party, are better than this.”

Rory Stewart, a former Tory MP who often criticises the government, said Labour’s advert was “bad policy and nasty politics”.

“I saw, as a justice minister, the horror and damage created in the criminal justice system by this kind of bile,” Mr Stewart said.

He said prison terms were “about laws, sentencing guidelines and judicial practices … that were not and would not be different under Labour”.

Another Conservative MP, Tobias Ellwood, suggested the style of advert could put people off politics.

“I’ve called it out on my own side for stooping so low and do so again now,” he said.

The tweet was still up on Friday morning.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Friday, Labour shadow minister Lucy Powell stopped short of endorsing the advert and conceded it was “not to everybody’s taste”.

She said the graphic was “a skit” based on promotional material often put out by Mr Sunak.

“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.

Mr Starmer’s critics in the party say he has dragged Labour too far to the right since becoming leader in 2020. Supporters say he is making the party electable again after a heavy defeat in 2019.