No 10 stands by Prime Minister's Jesus House visit after Starmer apology

Jesus House is led by Pastor Agu Irukwu and is one of the biggest black majority churches in the UK. (Photo: Jesus House)

No 10 has refused to apologise over the Prime Minister's recent visit to Jesus House after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer U-turned on his Good Friday appearance at the church. 

Sir Keir shared a video about his visit to the north London church's pop-up vaccination centre on Twitter, but caved to pressure from LGBT+ activists in the Labour party and deleted the clip. 

He then posted an apology in which he said the visit to the church, which takes a traditional view of homosexuality, was a "mistake". 

"I completely disagree with Jesus House's beliefs on LGBT+ rights, which I was not aware of before my visit," he said.

"I apologise for the hurt my visit caused and have taken down the video. It was a mistake and I accept that."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has recently visited the church's vaccination centre, as has Prince Charles. 

In contrast to Sir Keir, Johnson's Press Secretary Allegra Stratton hailed the visit as being "incredibly important".

"We remember the visit to Jesus House well because that day it was the site of a pop-up centre for vaccines," she said.

"One of the main jobs inside Government over the last few weeks and months has been driving up vaccine take-up in communities that are hesitant about taking it – most noticeably the black community. That was the purpose of his visit that day.

"It was a profitable visit where he was able to meet black community leaders and work to increase vaccine take-up and deal with vaccine hesitancy.

"So it was an incredibly important visit, making sure every aspect of the population feels confident in and takes the vaccine is a top priority for this government."

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