Home Secretary apologises for ‘date rape’ joke

Home Secretary James Cleverly caused quite a stir recently as reports emerged that he had joked that “a little bit of Rohypnol is not really illegal”. 

At the end of December, reports began to emerge that the home secretary had made what his spokesperson described as an “ironic joke” at a Downing Street reception.

The joke was made to a group of women and involved him stating that if he only put a small amount of date rape drug in his wife’s drink then it “wasn’t really illegal”. Ironically, this statement from the Home Secretary came just after plans to crack down on drink spiking had been announced by the Home Office.

He was also reported to have laughed when explaining that the secret to a long marriage is ensuring that your wife is “someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there”.

As this information came to light, many were outraged, labelling the comment as ‘sickening’, and there have been countless calls for the Home Secretary to resign. 

Mr Cleverly has since made a formal apology through his spokesperson, admitting that the joke may have ‘distracted’ from the government’s work to tackle spiking. Downing Street said that following this it now considers the matter closed.

Regardless of what Downing Street had to say, the Home Secretary was still tackled about his offensive comments on Sky News’ Breakfast with Kay Burley. Trying to explain himself, he declared, “It was a joke that I made. And of course, you know, I regret it and I apologised immediately. To me that apology is heartfelt.” Further adding that “But I’m absolutely determined to continue the work which I’ve been doing for years both as foreign secretary and straight away as home secretary.”

Following the show, viewers took to social media with mixed reactions. Some stayed firm in their stance that he should resign, with one post on X reading “he can’t undo the damage done, he should be out!”, whilst others stayed that “James Cleverly has now apologised for a bad joke, so can we all move on?”

Should the Home Secretary be forced to resign, or can the public take his apology and move on?