Daughter of murdered MP Sir David Amess calls on Kemi Badenoch to apologise over ‘paedo defenders’ remark

During an exchange at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Ms Badenoch said the Prime Minister should "ask why his backbenchers are saying that they're being called the 'paedo defenders party'".

Ms Badenoch's jibe followed reporting by The Times that female Labour MPs had told Sir Keir earlier this month that voters had "screamed" the phrase at them in the street over the Peter Mandelson scandal.

Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr, Katie Amess blasted the Conservative Party leader's "inflammatory language", branding it "very upsetting" as she called for her to apologise.

"I don't think we would have seen my dad branding terms like that around. It's tarnishing a whole party with a label and it's not going to help the situation," she said.

Ms Amess, whose father Sir David died after being stabbed more than 20 times during a constituency surgery in 2021, warned Ms Badenoch's political attacks of this nature will only "inflame and create more anger."

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"It's not the way that our politicians should be talking," she added.

Ms Amess said she finds hearing inflammatory language "very upsetting" and "worrying", particularly when thinking back to her father's murder.

She explained: "My family is still in the middle of this trauma and trying to get to the bottom of how it was allowed to happen. Just the reality that this isn't a game, people have lost their lives and it's still not being taken seriously. it's really, really worrying."

When asked whether Mrs Badenoch should apologise, Ms Amess replied: "I definitely think she should and I really hope that she does.

"You can't tarnish a whole party with a label like that. Uur politicians are meant to be people that we aspire to be like and that we look up to and we have respect for them and outstanding citizens and unfortunately, the discourse that is going on at the moment, it's all petty, it's gone back to the playground, how children call each other names."

'Disgusting'

Earlier, an Labour MP Natalie Fleet accused Kemi Badenoch of putting activists at risk over her "paedo defenders party" comments.

She told LBC that Mrs Badenoch's use of the phrase had been "really upsetting".

Ms Fleet, who was herself was groomed and raped as a teenager, told Tonight with Andrew Marr: "There are hundreds of thousands of political activists, Labour and otherwise, that want to make the country a better place and to just throw language like that around because it might get you some extra votes is just really disgusting."

Asked if using the phrase put activists "in danger", Ms Fleet said: "It really does.

"There are good people that tell me that they fear for their own safety when they're going out knocking on doors and delivering leaflets."

Asked about Ms Fleet's comments, a spokesman for Mrs Badenoch said: "Tell that to the female Labour MP who said it."

Natalie Fleet came to speak on the show after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage refused to sack a Reform Councillor who shared a post calling for her "to be shot".