Alastair Campbell has been forced to apologise after falsely claiming that
Charlie Kirk advocated stoning gay people to death.
After Kirk’s assassination on Wednesday, the former
Labour spin doctor said some of his views were “horrific” and that he had seen footage of him saying homosexuals should be killed.
On The Rest is Politics podcast, Mr Campbell said: “I remember one clip I saw of him saying... literal reading of the Bible, gay people should be stoned to death.”
He retracted these comments on Sunday in a post on X, writing: “Apologies for this. I had seen a clip on social media which did not have the full context, and had seen others making the same claim... Kirk did have views with which I strongly disagree but this was not among them.”
Mr Campbell appeared to be referencing an older clip of Kirk that circulated on social media in the aftermath of his death. It showed him referencing Leviticus 18 and saying those who “lay with another man shall be stoned to death... [this chapter] affirms God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters”.
Kirk was highlighting the problem of selectively quoting scripture, not calling for gay people to be killed, but the footage had been edited to remove that context.
The Turning Point USA founder had said on numerous occasions that he disapproved of the gay “lifestyle”, but that he respected personal choice and that gay people should be welcomed in the “conservative movement”.
In one viral interaction with a young gay conservative, Kirk says that the man’s sexuality is not the most important part of his identity and what he does “in the bedroom” does not mean that much to him.
In a post from 2019, he wrote that “as Christians we are called to love everyone” and he would always “stand against people who wish to establish their own personal values as a reason to kick others out of our movement”.
Other public figures have also repeated the same false claim about Kirk being in favour of stoning gay people.
Stephen King, the author, wrote in a now-deleted post that Kirk “advocated stoning gays to death. Just sayin”. He later apologised and vowed to fact-check what he reads on X in the future.
Terry Christian, the TV and radio presenter, made the same claim but did not apologise. When another X user pointed out it was false, he responded: “Who gives a f--k what he said.”
Kirk was killed by a single rifle shot fired from a rooftop during an outdoor event attended by 3,000 people at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old suspect who appears to have written “anti-fascist” messages on the bullet casings, is expected to be formally charged on Tuesday.
