Dawn Neesom Under Fire For Defending Home Secretary’s Date Rape Drug Joke
Former Daily Star editor Dawn Neesom is facing backlash for defending Home Secretary James Cleverly’s date rape drug joke on Sky News
Neesom, given in a review of the newspapers in a appearance as a panelist, remarked: “We all make slightly off coloured jokes when we’re not on duty.”
Cleverly’s joke, reported by the Sunday Mirror, included a comment that adding “a little bit of Rohypnol in [his wife’s] drink every night” was “not really illegal if it’s only a little bit.” He also said that the secret to a long marriage being to keep your spouse “mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there.”
This incident came just hours after the Home Office announced measures to combat spiking, where drugs are introduced into a person’s drink or body without their knowledge.
The incident was met with immediate condemnation from campaigners who protested the need to overhaul of attitudes that trivialize date rape and coercive control. Jemima Olchawski, CEO of the women’s rights Fawcett Society, called the comments “sickening.” She joined representatives from other women’s safety organisations like Reclaim These Streets and Support After Rape as well as Sexual Violence Leeds in expressing anger at the comments and calling for Cleverly’s resignation
A spokesperson for the Home Secretary said that the remarks were meant to be “ironic” and offered an apology.
Neesom’s commentary was met with backlash from viewers who believed she was defending Cleverly.
😡🚫 Seriously, Dawn Neesom? Defending #JamesCleverly's "joke" about spiking with rohypnol to silence his wife? This is no laughing matter! How can we excuse such insensitive remarks under the guise of humor?
— Candice Holmes (@hol40900) December 24, 2023
Not only can't you spin this totally inappropriate and distasteful remark into a positive.. or 'explain it away' as a bit of banter.. why would you want to!? 🤡🤡🤡
— Steppa (@SteppaMusic) December 24, 2023
Others pointed out that Neesom’s sympathetic view of Cleverly’s “off-coloured” joke may have been itself coloured by politics:
I wonder what Dawn Neesom would have said if that "joke" had been made by Keir Starmer or David Lammy.
— ZippiddyDo (@ZippiddyD) December 24, 2023
In October, following the denial of pro-Palestinians of reported rape incidents during the Hamas attack on Israel, Neesom gave a different take on the seriousness of the matter:
The media personality, whose journalism career spans time in tabloid newspapers the Daily Star and The Sun, is now a regular on right-leaning talkRADIO and GB News. She is yet to comment.
