Angela Rayner today challenged Boris Johnson to sit down with her after Tories were left furious with her for calling them “scum”.
The Mirror revealed how Ms Rayner told a late-night North West Labour reception: "We cannot get any worse than a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute vile [inaudible] Banana Republic, vile, nasty, Etonian [inaudible] piece of scum.”
Tory MPs voiced outrage, while Keir Starmer said they were not words he would use and he would be speaking to Ms Rayner.
But an unrepentant deputy leader tweeted today: “People seem to be far more concerned with my choice of language than the fact that @BorisJohnson has made comments that are racist, homophobic and sexist.
“I’m very happy to sit down with Boris. If he withdraws his comments and apologises, I'll be very happy to apologise to him.”
Mr Johnson once dubbed gay men "tank-topped bum boys", referred to black people as "piccaninnies with watermelon smiles", and wrote about "totty" at party conference.
Ms Rayner, who left school pregnant aged 16, also highlighted the Prime Minister’s comments about single mothers.
In a 1995 Spectator column, the former journalist branded the children of single mothers "ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate”.
In the same column, he argued it was "feeble" for a man to be reluctant or unable to "take control of his woman."
He said it was “outrageous" that married couples should fund "'the single mothers' desire to procreate independently of men’”, and a way must be found to “restore women's desire to be married."
Ms Rayner tweeted: “ Boris Johnson also called the children of single mothers 'ignorant and illegitimate'.
“According to @BorisJohnson, when I was a young single mum I should have been pushed into ‘destitution on a Victorian scale’. So you can apologise for those comments as well Prime Minister.”
Boris Johnson did not immediately take up her offer today.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman replied: "I've not seen her specific tweet and I've not spoken to the PM about it, so it's entirely a matter for her how she chooses her comments."
Earlier Jeremy Corbyn said Angela Rayner did not need to apologise for branding the Tories “scum” as she was “saying what needs to be said”.
The former Labour leader waded into the row over Ms Rayner's late-night comments to activists, which have triggered a wave of criticism.
He said Ms Rayner, who served in his Shadow Cabinet, was "absolutely right to attack" the Government over the way it is treating people.
But her comments have threatened to overshadow the start of Labour's annual conference in Brighton.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said she would not have called Boris Johnson's Government "scum" - but she claimed lots of people shared the sentiment.
"I understand why Angela Rayner's angry, we are all angry with what the Government are doing at our conference here in Brighton this week," Ms Reeves told Times Radio.
"I wouldn't use that language but I think that sentiment is shared by many people who are struggling at the moment, queuing for petrol, who are worried about cuts to Universal Credit next month and worried about increases in taxes next year."
The comments have triggered mutterings among Labour MPs at conference.
One shadow minister told the Mirror: "I wouldn't have said it. It just makes us look daft."
