THE government fails to understand the seriousness of violence against women, Labour warned today after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was “case closed” on the Home Secretary’s spiking “joke.”

James Cleverly continues to face calls to resign from campaigners after he told guests at a Downing Street reception that “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 quipped that the secret to a long marriage was making sure your spouse was “someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there.”

Mr Cleverly apologised for the comments, made just hours after his department announced plans to crack down on spiking — putting drugs into another person’s drink or body without their knowledge.

A spokeswoman for Mr Sunak said that the PM “considers the matter closed, and he and the Home Secretary are focused on the action the government is taking.”

Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Across the country, there will be young victims whose lives have been devastated by spiking attacks over the festive period.

“Yet neither the Prime Minister nor the Home Secretary seem to understand the seriousness of this vile crime, or how damaging it is for the confidence of victims that the Cabinet minister in charge of tackling violence against women and girls is making jokes about spiking in this way.

“Ministers need to set out what they are going to do to rebuild trust and ensure everyone takes this vile crime seriously rather than dismissing the incident as ‘case closed’.”

Between May 2022 and April 2023, there were 6,732 reports of spiking in England and Wales, including 957 reported incidents of needle spiking.