The UK home secretary, James Cleverly, has conceded that a pre-Christmas “joke” he made about spiking his wife’s drink with a “date rape” drug could have distracted from his department’s work to tackle violence against women and girls. In his first public appearances since comments made at a Downing Street reception prompted calls for his resignation, Cleverly reiterated an apology for what he described as a joke and sought to emphasise his record in government on bringing forward policies to help women and girls. He has been facing calls by campaigners and others to resign after the comment at a Downing Street reception just hours after the Home Office announced plans to crack down on spiking – putting drugs into another person’s drink or directly into their body without their knowledge. He told Sky News: “I’m sorry because it clearly caused hurt, it’s potentially distracted from the work we were doing to tackle spiking to help predominantly women who are the victims of spiking and I regret that. But I’m absolutely determined to continue the work that I’ve been doing for years.” Campaigners said his comments were likely to be “upsetting and triggering” to victims of spiking and sexual assault, and called for an overhaul of attitudes that normalised “banter” about date rape and coercive control. Cleverly told guests at a Downing Street reception that “a little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night” was “not really illegal if it’s only a little bit”, the Sunday Mirror reported. He also laughed that the secret to a long marriage was making sure your spouse was “someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there”.
Conversations at Downing Street receptions are usually understood to be off the record but the Sunday Mirror said it broke the convention because of Cleverly’s position and the subject. Cleverly said on Tuesday morning: “I made a joke. It was an awful joke, but I apologised immediately and I am absolutely committed and I have been throughout my political career, to the protection of women and girls” Jemima Olchawski, the chief executive of the leading women’s rights charity the Fawcett Society, said Cleverly clearly needed to take the issue of women’s safety more seriously. “It’s right that he has apologised instead of continuing to double down and claim his misogynistic comments were a joke. The home secretary now needs to walk the talk and show us exactly what his commitment to better protecting women looks like. Words matter – particularly when it comes to those who hold so much power in our society.” Police receive an average of 561 reports of spiking a month, with the majority being made by women, typically after incidents in or near bars and nightclubs, according to a Home Office report. The comments are the latest attributed to Cleverly in circumstances that have landed him in hot water. A Labour MP accused him last year of describing the constituency of Stockton North as a “shit-hole” in parliament. Cleverly bristled when he was asked about this again on Tuesday on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, insisting he had not used the word “shit-hole”, but instead had used the word “shit” to refer to an individual.