David Lammy has allegedly named sex pest Bill Cosby as his childhood role model.
In a video for civil servants marking International Men’s Day, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary Mr Lammy is believed to have been asked who he looked up to most when he was younger.
He placed former South African president Nelson Mandela at the top of his list but then included Cosby as a second option, The Sun reports.
Cosby has been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women, including several who have filed lawsuits under the Adult Survivors Act.
He faced his first sexual assault accusation in 2004 from Andrea Constand, with dozens more women later coming forward with similar claims.
He was convicted in 2018 and jailed, but walked free in 2021 after Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court overturned the ruling, citing a prior deal that should have blocked his prosecution.
Cosby denies all allegations involving sex crimes.
The footage of Mr Lammy’s gaffe allegedly had to be cut from the video package.
The Daily Mail has approached Mr Lammy for comment.
Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era and remains largely out of the public eye.
He continues to face numerous sexual assault allegations and lawsuits filed by other women in New York, Los Angeles, New Jersey and Nevada.
Last year, the entertainer was the subject of abuse claims from 10 more women after a judge in Las Vegas allowed their lawsuit to proceed.
They came after Nevada state lifted the statute of limitations for civil claims by survivors of sexual violence.
In 2023, a woman who worked as a stand-in at The Cosby Show in the 1980s said in a lawsuit that the comedian had drugged and sexually abused her after offering to mentor her in her acting career.
The lawsuit was filed against Cosby under New York’s expiring Adult Survivors Act, which has given victims of sexual abuse a one-year window for claims that would otherwise be barred by time limits.
An unidentified actor on the show later expressed to her that Cosby ‘could do whatever he wanted to do with impunity at ‘The Cosby Show,’ according to the lawsuit, which was seeking damages for battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment.
The Ministry of Justice declined to comment.
But a source close to Mr Lammy said: ‘This is a distortion. Mr Lammy’s view is that Cosby’s crimes were abhorrent and he does not represent a role model for anyone in society.
‘Mr Lammy has previously talked about Cosby being seen as a role model in the 1980s for many young black men, before his horrific crimes were known, in an era when positively portrayed black faces were few and far between on TV.’
