SIR Keir Starmer has refused to back down in the row about Labour attack adverts linking Rishi Sunak and child abuse, saying: “I stand by every word”.

Writing in the Daily Mail, the Labour leader said it was right to highlight the Tory record on crime “no matter how squeamish it might make some feel”.

He said he would make “absolutely zero apologies” for the highly personalised attacks.

It follows dissent within Labour after an online attack ad released last week featured a picture of the Prime Minister and a mocked up version of his signature.

It read: “Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn’t.”

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It explained that “under the Tories, 4500 adults convicted of sexually assaulting children under 16 served no prison time”, and said Labour would “lock up dangerous child abusers”.

However the figures - which cover England and Wales only - date back to 2010, five years before Mr Sunak was elected an MP, and 12 years before he became Prime Minister.

In addition, courts, not prime ministers, sentence people and Sir Keir himself was on the sentencing council which helped draw up the relevant sentencing guidelines in 2012.

Former Labour home secretary Lord Blunkett said it was “deeply offensive to get down in the gutter to fight politics in this way” and urged the “grotesque and offensive” be  withdrawn.

He also said it was absurd to argue the Prime Minister should take responsibility for “the sentencing policies of judges”.

Labour’s bare-knuckle approach comes ahead of local elections in England next month and a general election expected next year.

The party is reportedly planning more ads in the same vein, including one blaming Mr Sunak for “crashing the economy and for soaring mortgage and council tax rates”.

In his article, Sir Keir defended the sex offence advert by saying he refused “to just stand by or avoid calling this what it is”.

He blamed the Government for multiple of failures on crime, highlighting low prosecution rates for rape and burglary, and accused ministers of  failing to tackle the court backlog, fraud against older people, and fly-tipping that turns "neighbourhoods into junkyards".

He said: "Rishi Sunak and successive Tory governments have let criminals get away with it because they don't get it. They have never lived in those neighbourhoods, they don't understand people's lives, they have never walked in those shoes."

Highlighting his role as the director of public prosecutions in England and Wales from 2008 to 2013, he said his life's work has "been about making our country safer and more secure".

He refused to apologise for "being blunt and that when 4,500 abusers aren't sent to prison, people want answers rather than excuses from politicians".

A Tory source accused Sir Keir of failing to prosecute some of the "worst people in Britain".

They told the BBC he “thinks the rights of criminals trump those of the law-abiding majority". 

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Sentencing guidelines for courts in England and Wales say community sentences can be imposed as an alternative to prison in cases of sexual activity with a child over 13. 

The guidelines say community orders "can fulfil all of the purposes of sentencing".

Last week, shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell refused to endorse the sunak child abuse advert, however her colleague shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry did so today. 

She told BBC Radio 4 this morning: “The way I judge these things is this. There’s two things – is the criticism based on clear and objective facts? And secondly, is the individual concerned in a position to be able to do something about it? Or is it something which is a result of something they’ve done? And if the answer to both of those things is yes, then I don’t see any reason why we can’t criticise that person individually.”

She said if the PM “really thought that it was so important, he would do something about it”.

She was challenged over Sir Keir’s membership of the Sentencing Council when it set out guidelines in 2012 suggesting not all child sex abusers should automatically be jailed.

Asked if Sir Keir objected to the guidelines at the time, she said: “I don’t know the details of what the exact guidance is in relation to the Sentencing Council, but I do know this, that it is open to Parliament to set minimum and maximum sentences.”

She said it should be the “default position” that an adult convicted of sexually assaulting a child will go to prison.

However she also said a Labour government would not fund any more prison places, “because we’re a party of optimism”.

She said: “What we need to do is we need to look at it from the very beginning to the very end of the criminal justice system. If we had more community police officers on the street, which we do commit to and we have a clear idea of where the funding comes from in relation to that, we would be able to catch people earlier.”

SNP MP John Nicolson last week called the Sunak attack "nauseating", while  Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson said she was “pretty disgusted by it”.

She added: “This is not an attack ad my party would use."