A TORY councillor has hit back at Labour’s deputy leader after she labelled senior Conservatives ‘scum’.
Labour’s Angela Rayner made the remarks at a party conference event in Brighton on Saturday night, saying: “We cannot get any worse than a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute vile… banana republic, vile, nasty, Etonian… piece of scum.”
To applause, she added she had “held back a little”, according to reports from the Daily Mirror.
Basildon councillor Andrew Schrader took to Twitter to rebuke the remarks as ‘unhinged animus’.
He said: “Sentiments expressed here are deeply ugly! Should there really be any room for this kind of incitement to hatred in mainstream politics?
“Apparently we Tories are “racist”, “homophobic” and “misogynistic” “scum”. I will never understand this level of unhinged animus against people who simply disagree on politics. The worst I've ever said about socialists is that they are wrong.”
He added: “Also, let's unpack. 'Racist'? Take a look at current frontbench. Two out of the four great offices of state currently held by BAME Tories. 'Homophobic'? The party that legalised gay marriage! 'Misogynistic'? Excuse me, Mrs Rayner - two female PMs. Count 'em! That's two more than Labour.”
Defending her remarks, Ms Rayner challenged Boris Johnson on Monday to sit down with her and apologise for his own “racist, homophobic and sexist” comments before she says sorry for her verbal attack on Conservatives.
She tweeted that people “seem to be far more concerned with my choice of language” than the Prime Minister’s own “racist, homophobic and sexist” comments.
“I’m very happy to sit down with Boris. If he withdraws his comments and apologises, I’ll be very happy to apologise to him,” the Ashton-under-Lyne MP added.
She attached reports of Mr Johnson using offensive remarks such as comparing burka-wearing Muslim women to “letter boxes” and describing gay men as “tank-topped bum boys”.
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