Sunak ‘considers matter closed’ after home secretary apologises for date rape joke
No action will be taken against James Cleverly over his date rape joke as the prime minister “considers the matter closed”.
The home secretary has been facing calls to quit after joking about putting a date rape drug in his wife’s drink – hours after the Home Office announced plans to crack down on spiking.
Mr Cleverly apologised for the remarks but has faced calls to resign by a women’s charity while Labour accused Rishi Sunak of an “absence of leadership, accountability and integrity” for failing to take action against him.
Asked for the prime minister’s thoughts on the comment, his official spokeswoman said it was “right that the home secretary apologised”.
She added: “The prime minister considers the matter closed and he and the home secretary are focused on the action that the government is taking to tackle spiking and protect women and girls.”
Read more:
Drink spiking laws to be modernised, Home Office says
She said she was not aware of Mr Sunak and Mr Cleverly having spoken about the incident.
Asked whether Mr Sunak was concerned about the type of message the remarks might give to victims of spiking, his spokeswoman reiterated that Mr Sunak and Mr Cleverly were focused on taking “action”, adding: “That is why we made sure that existing laws recognise the threat that spiking poses to women and girls.
“And that is why we set out also a raft of measures to offer immediate support to victims, alongside mandatory training for doormen, investing in research for rapid testing kits – all announced by the Home Office in a package just last week.
James Cleverly and his wife Susannah Cleverly
“So our focus is on making sure that we are taking the action required to protect women and girls.”
Mr Cleverly made the comments during a private conversation at a Number 10 reception.
The home secretary told female guests “a little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night” was “not really illegal if it’s only a little bit”, the Sunday Mirror reported.
Mr Cleverly also laughed that the secret to a long marriage was ensuring your spouse was “someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there”.
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Conversations at Downing Street receptions are usually understood to be “off the record”, but the Sunday Mirror decided to break that convention because of Mr Cleverly’s position and the subject matter.
Allies of the cabinet minister said his comments were made in a private setting but he recognises they were inappropriate.
A spokesman for the home secretary said: “In what was always understood as a private conversation, James, the home secretary tackling spiking, made what was clearly meant to be an ironic joke – for which he apologises.”
However, his apology was not well received by the Fawcett Society chief executive Jemima Olchawski, who called it “sickening” that “the senior minister in charge of keeping women safe thinks that something as terrifying as drugging women is a laughing matter”.
She said: “How can we trust him to seriously address violence against women and girls? We deserve better than this from our lawmakers and Cleverly should resign.”
Labour turned the heat on to Mr Sunak’s leadership, with shadow home office minister Alex Davies Jones saying: “The country deserves so much better.
“There is an absence of leadership, accountability and integrity in this government and we’re all paying the price.”
A US federal judge has agreed to pause a lawsuit filed by 18 state attorneys general and the crypto lobby group DeFi Education Fund against the Securities and Exchange Commission after all parties said new SEC leadership could make the action moot.
Kentucky District Court Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove ordered a 60-day stay on the case on April 16, noting a mid-March filing from the SEC that “this case could potentially be resolved” due to a leadership transition at the regulator.
He added that the parties must file a joint status report within 30 days.
Paul Atkins, a Wall Street adviser who has held board positions with crypto advocacy groups, was sworn in as the new SEC chair earlier this month, replacing acting chair Mark Uyeda and taking over from Gary Gensler.
The 18 attorneys general, all hailing from Republican states, filed the lawsuit with the DeFi Education Fund against the securities regulator in November, alleging that the SEC exceeded its authority when targeting crypto exchanges with lawsuits, accusing the regulator and then-chair Gensler of “gross government overreach.”
The plaintiffs included attorneys general from Nebraska, Tennessee, Wyoming, Kentucky, West Virginia, Iowa, Texas, Mississippi, Ohio, Montana, Indiana, Oklahoma and Florida, among others.
“Without Congressional authorization, the SEC has sought to unilaterally wrest regulatory authority away from the States through an ongoing series of enforcement actions,” the lawsuit stated.
DeFi groups drop case against IRS over killed broker rule
Meanwhile, the DeFi Education Fund, Blockchain Association, and Texas Blockchain Council dropped their lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service on April 16.
“The parties hereby stipulate to voluntary dismissal of this action without prejudice because the case has become moot,” stated the filing.
The lawsuit, filed in December, argued that the so-called IRS DeFi broker rule went beyond the agency’s authority and was unconstitutional.
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On April 11, President Donald Trump signed a bill to revoke the rule that would have required DeFi protocols to report transactions to the IRS.
It comes as the SEC has paused or dropped several high-profile lawsuits against crypto companies this year under its new leadership.
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Panama’s capital city will accept cryptocurrency payments for taxes and municipal fees, including bus tickets and permits, Panama City mayor Mayer Mizrachi announced on April 15, joining a growing list of jurisdictions globally that have voted to accept such payments.
Panama City will begin accepting Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Circle’s USDC (USDC), and Tether’s USDt (USDT) stablecoin for payment once the crypto-to-fiat payment rails are established, Mizrachi posted on the X platform.
Mizrachi said previous administrations attempted to push through similar legislation but failed to overcome stipulations requiring the local government to accept funds denominated in US dollars.
In a translated statement, the Panama City mayor said that the local government partnered with a bank that will immediately convert any digital assets received into US dollars, allowing the municipality to accept crypto without introducing new legislation.
Panama City joins a growing list of global jurisdictions on the municipal and state level accepting cryptocurrency payments for taxes, exploring Bitcoin strategic reserves to protect public treasuries from inflation and passing pro-crypto policies to attract investment.
Related: New York bill proposes legalizing Bitcoin, crypto for state payments
Municipalities and states embrace digital assets
Several municipalities and territories around the globe already accept crypto for tax payments or are exploring various implementations of blockchain technology for government spending.
The US state of Colorado started accepting crypto payments for taxes in September 2022. Much like Panama City said it will do, Colorado immediately converts the crypto to fiat.
In December 2023, the city of Lugano, Switzerland, announced taxes and city fees could be paid in Bitcoin, which was one of the developments that earned it the reputation of being a globally recognized Bitcoin city.
The city council of Vancouver, Canada, passed a motion to become “Bitcoin-friendly city” in December 2024. As part of that motion, the Vancouver local government will explore integrating BTC into the financial system, including tax payments.
North Carolina lawmaker Neal Jackson introduced legislation titled “The North Carolina Digital Asset Freedom Act” on April 10. If passed, the bill will recognize cryptocurrencies as an official form of payment that can be used to pay taxes.
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As digital assets gain mainstream adoption, establishing a legal framework for stablecoins is a “good idea,” said US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
In an April 16 panel at the Economic Club of Chicago, Powell commented on the evolution of the cryptocurrency industry, which has delivered a consumer use case that “could have wide appeal” following a difficult “wave of failures and frauds,” he said.
Powell delivers remarks at the Economic Club of Chicago. Source: Bloomberg Television
During crypto’s difficult years, which culminated in 2022 and 2023 with several high-profile business failures, the Fed “worked with Congress to try to get a […] legal framework for stablecoins, which would have been a nice place to start,” said Powell. “We were not successful.”
“I think that the climate is changing and you’re moving into more mainstreaming of that whole sector, so Congress is again looking […] at a legal framework for stablecoins,” he said.
“Depending on what’s in it, that’s a good idea. We need that. There isn’t one now,” said Powell.
This isn’t the first time Powell acknowledged the need for stablecoin legislation. In June 2023, the Fed boss told the House Financial Services Committee that stablecoins were “a form of money” that requires “robust” federal oversight.
Related: Stablecoins are the best way to ensure US dollar dominance — Web3 CEO
Support for stablecoin legislation is growing
The election of US President Donald Trump has ushered in a new era of pro-crypto appointments and policy shifts that could make America a digital asset superpower.
Washington’s formal embrace of cryptocurrency began earlier this year when Trump established the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, with Bo Hines as the executive director.
Hines told a digital asset summit in New York last month that a comprehensive stablecoin bill was a top priority for the current administration. After the Senate Banking Committee passed the GENIUS Act, a final stablecoin bill could arrive at the president’s desk “in the next two months,” said Hines.
Bo Hines (right) speaks of “imminent” stablecoin legislation at the Digital Asset Summit on March 18. Source: Cointelegraph
Stablecoins pegged to the US dollar are by far the most popular tokens used for remittances and cryptocurrency trading.
The combined value of all stablecoins is currently $227 billion, according to RWA.xyz. The dollar-pegged USDC (USDC) and USDt (USDT) account for more than 88% of the total market.
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