During BBC Question Time on 10 May, an audience member asked the panel:
Does the failure of Labour to gain ground in traditional working-class towns – like Dudley and Bolton – suggest that Corbyn-mania is dead?
And work and pensions secretary Esther McVey used the opportunity to try and smear Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell. But rapper Akala was having none of it.
The attempted smear
In light of the local election results, and responding to the question, McVey said:
Corbynism is unravelling. And what we’re seeing is a far-left. What we’re seeing is a Momentum… You’ve got McDonnell who is his shadow chancellor, who agrees in Marxism.
“Laughing about dead Libyans”
As McVey continued, Akala had to interject, pointing out:
And you’ve got a foreign secretary who laughs at dead Libyans.
At a Conservative fringe meeting in 2017, Boris Johnson joked that the city of Sirte in Libya could become the new Dubai if they ‘cleared the dead bodies away’.
Following a round of applause, Akala added:
Do you condemn your foreign secretary laughing about dead Libyans?
To which the work and pensions secretary responded:
He has never come out and agreed with Marxism. He has never been antisemitic. He has never been a misogynist. And this is what you’re seeing with the unravelling of Corbyn.
Pressing her on the issue one more time, Akala asked whether McVey condemns Johnson’s comments. And she refused to give an answer.
Silence speaks volumes
Johnson refused to apologise for his comments on Libya. And it looks like McVey also doesn’t believe what he said was vile enough to denounce. Her silence on the issue really does speak volumes.
You can watch the full exchange here:
https://youtu.be/aOQ_oaCfiWg?t=54m55s
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Featured image via screengrab
