At a Downing Street reception, UK Home Secretary, James Cleverly, made jokes about spiking his own wife’s drink with a date rape drug, the Guardian reported on Sunday. He is facing calls to resign for his comments.
He apologized for making the remarks just hours after the Home Office announced plans to crack down on drug spiking.
Cleverly told guests at the reception that “a little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night” was “not really illegal if it's only a little bit.”
He also laughed while saying that the secret to a long marriage was making sure your spouse was “someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realize 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 convention because of Cleverly’s position and the subject.
A spokesperson for his office said, “In what was always understood as a private conversation, James, the home secretary, tackling spiking made what was clearly meant to be an ironic joke - for which he apologizes.”
Women's rights organizations condemn his comments
Campaigners said his comments were likely to be “upsetting and triggering” to victims of drug spiking and sexual assault, as well as called for an overhaul of attitudes that normalized “banter” about date rape and coercive control.
Jemima Olchawksi, the chief executive of leading women’s rights organization the Fawcett Society, issued a statement, “We know that ‘banter’ is the excuse under which misogyny is allowed to thrive. How can we trust [Cleverly] to seriously address violence against women and girls? We deserve better than this from our lawmakers, and he should resign.”
Alex Davies-Jones, the shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, said on X, formerly known on Twitter, “‘It was a joke’ is the most tired excuse in the book, and no one is buying it.”
Police receive an average of 561 reports of drug spiking a month, the majority of them made by women, and usually in or near bars and nightclubs, according to a Home Office report.
Anna Birley, from the group Reclaim These Streets, which campaigns for better safety for women, said, “Women cannot trust this government to keep them safe while there is a home secretary who thinks sexual assault is funny. Women’s safety is no joke, and a government serious about tackling violence against women and girls would have a zero-tolerance approach to misogyny from its frontbench.” She believes that Cleverly should resign.