Boris Johnson slammed for saying money spent investigating historical child sex abuse is being 'spaffed up the wall'
2 min read
Boris Johnson has been branded "shameless" after he claimed that money spent investigating historic cases of child sex abuse was being “spaffed up the wall”.
The Tory heavyweight complained that money was being spent on investigating past cases rather than funding increases in frontline police numbers.
Speaking on LBC, the Conservative leadership favourite said: “Keeping numbers high on the streets is certainly important. But it depends where you spend the money and where you deploy the officers.
“And one comment I would make is I think an awful lot of money and an awful lot of police time now goes into these historic offences and all this mullarkey.
“You know, £60 million I saw was being spaffed up a wall on some investigation into historic child abuse."
But Louise Haigh, Labour’s Shadow Policing Minister, slammed the comments, describing the former foreign secretary as a “shamless, dangerous oaf”.
She added: “Could you look the victims in the eye and tell them investigating and bringing to justice those who abused them, as children, is a waste of money?”
Fellow Labour MP Rupa Huq also tore in the ex-Cabinet minister, accusing him of trying to "play to the gallery" to boost his leadership chances.
"Boris Johnson, commonly agreed to be the worst Foreign Secretary ever now shows how once again he is suffering from foot-in-mouth diease with his extraordinarily insenstive comments which will dismay and upset many families," she told PoliticsHome.
"If this man with his previously slapdash comments about Liverpudlians and piccanninies and often calculated remarks on matters such as Muslim women resembling letterboxes and the EU being tanamount to Hitler is really our next Prime Minister, heaven help us.
"He is not a unifier but someone who seeks to play to the gallery of his diminishing and increasingly extreme party in order to win the leadership."
Meanwhile Labour chair Ian Lavery demanded that Mr Johnson apologise for the remarks.
“These disgusting comments are an insult to every survivor of child sex abuse,” he said.
“If Boris Johnson has even a little bit of decency he will now apologise to the victims of families of those who have suffered.”
Bassetlaw MP John Mann added: “Boris Johnson says investigating historic child abuse was a waste of money. Try telling that to my constituent whose rapist got 19 years after we pressured for the case to be re-opened.”
It is unclear what £60m cost Mr Johnson was referring to.
His comments came as an Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, set up by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary, continued to hear claims that political parties have turned a blind eye to abuse.
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
