Interviewer: “Rape is rape, with respect”; Ken Clarke: “No it’s not”

Left Foot Forward

Ed Miliband called on David Cameron to sack Ken Clarke today after the justice secretary's remarks about rape in a BBC radio interview this morning.

Ed Miliband called on David Cameron to sack Ken Clarke today after the justice secretary’s remarks about rape in a BBC radio interview this morning. At Prime Minister’s Questions, Miliband asked Cameron “to take this opportunity to distance himself”, said “the justice secretary should not be in his post by the end of today”, and urged Cameron to “get rid of his justice secretary”.

Clarke made his controversial comments in an interview with Victoria Derbyshire on BBC Radio Five Live.

To the shock of his interviewer, he spoke about “serious rape… rape in the ordinary conversational sense”, claiming it was different from “date rape”.

Then, when Derbyshire said “rape is rape, with respect”, he replied:

“No it’s not.”

Listen to the key excerpts:

And speaking on Boulton & Co. on Sky News this lunchtime, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said:

“You cannot suggest that there is somehow a category of rape in which somehow the woman is willing. Unless he changes his view very rapidly of course he’s got to go.”

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63 Responses to “Interviewer: “Rape is rape, with respect”; Ken Clarke: “No it’s not””

  1. L r d

    @jailhousejade https://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/05/ken-clarke-rape-comments/ try listenening to what he said b4 blasting him.

  2. Ash

    Anon –

    “On the cases you mention if both rapists got 25 years they may not reoffend again. Certainly not within 25 years.”

    Remind me: which of us is advocating a ‘blunt tool’ approach? I thought you were in favour of “letting the individual cases be addressed by the judge”?

    On Ken Clarke’s comments, we seem to have a genuine disagreement about what he was and wasn’t implying. Fair enough.

    “(to me at least) there is a difference in the CRIME of rape.

    I make no comment on the results from the CRIME of rape, just the action itself.”

    I don’t know what you mean, sorry.

  3. The lack of women in Westminster has gone on for too long | Left Foot Forward

    […] Interviewer: “Rape is rape, with respect”; Ken Clarke: “No it’s not” – Shamik Das, May 18th 2011 Share | Permalink | Comments: 2 Comments […]

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