Labour leader challenger Owen Smith has apologised for pledging to “smash” Theresa May “back on her heels”, a day after vigorously defending his comments.
During a speech at a campaign event on Wednesday, Smith had declared of the prime minister, known for wearing kitten heels:
“I’ll be honest with you, it pained me that we didn’t have the strength and the power and the vitality to smash her back on her heels and argue that these our values, these are our people, this is our language that they are seeking to steal.”
When pressed about his use of language, Smith told journalists he was using “robust rhetoric” and added: “I absolutely stand by those comments.”
But on Thursday, a spokesman for the campaign said Smith regretted his choice of words: “It was off script and on reflection it was an inappropriate choice of phrase and he apologises for using it.”
Since the murder of the MP Jo Cox in June, there has been attempt by some in politics to tone down the use of violent metaphors and imagery.
Others though, have stuck with it – despite Jeremy Corbyn’s call for a “kinder, gentler politics” his shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, described rebel MPs as a “lynch mob without the rope”.
Smith’s language has come under scrutiny before. In 2010, when writing about the Tory/Lib-Dem coalition, he asked: “Surely, the Liberal will file for divorce as soon as the bruises start to show through the make-up?”
After an outcry over the domestic violence metaphor, Smith edited the piece.
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