Boris Johnson’s “anti-woke agenda” has helped gas the rise in misogynistic behaviour in parliament, one in every of Labour’s most senior ladies MPs has mentioned.
Margaret Hodge’s feedback got here after the resignation of Tory MP Neil Parish for watching porn within the Commons chamber, and amid a flood of complaints about ladies at Westminster being groped, objectified and belittled due to their intercourse.
Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is to convene a once-in-a-generation convention to convey events and parliamentary authorities collectively to search out options to the issue of bullying and sexual harassment. These might contain ending the association the place MPs immediately make use of their very own workers, making it troublesome for them to complain about their remedy.
However cupboard minister Kwasi Kwarteng denied there was a tradition of misogyny in parliament, blaming the string of current circumstances on “unhealthy apples” amongst MPs.
And claims that 56 male MPs are at present underneath investigation for sexual misconduct had been forged into doubt by the director of parliament’s Impartial Complaints and Grievance Scheme, Jo Willows, who mentioned 2022 was following a “related pattern” to final yr, when a complete of 15 circumstances had been introduced towards MPs.
In the meantime, it emerged that the chair of the Commons requirements committee, Chris Bryant, was himself “touched up” by male MPs when he arrived at Westminster as a younger homosexual man in 2001.
Mr Bryant, now 60, mentioned he didn’t report the incidents for worry of turning into “a part of the story” however would now take a extra “strong” response.
And SNP MP Anum Qaisar, who entered parliament final yr, mentioned she was suggested by a feminine Tory MP on which of her male colleagues she ought to preserve at a distance after one turned “far too over-cavalier” in the direction of her at a parliamentary occasion.
“Since I joined parliament, I’ve been taken apart by feminine MPs to warn me about some male MPs,” mentioned Ms Qaisar, 29. “They are saying ‘Truly, Anum, you’re most likely higher off staying away from X, Y and Z’.”
Dame Margaret Hodge mentioned that the upsurge in sexism complaints was partly attributable to the “tradition led from the highest” in UK politics.
“We’ve had Boris Johnson making a tradition the place it’s OK to interrupt the foundations and we’ve received an ‘anti-woke’ tradition being pushed from the highest,” she advised BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend.
“That anti-woke tradition has allowed this type of behaviour to be seen because the norm.”
She mentioned it was notable that overseas secretary Liz Truss had made no public remark, in her function as minister for ladies, in regards to the points raised by the Parish case.
Mr Kwarteng insisted that parliament was a secure place for ladies however mentioned that the pressures of the job drove some MPs to step over the road.
“I don’t suppose there’s a tradition of misogyny,” Mr Kwarteng advised Sky Information’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday.
“I feel the issue we’ve got is that individuals are working in a very intense atmosphere. There are lengthy hours. I feel, usually, most individuals know their limits. They know the way to act respectfully, however there are some situations the place individuals don’t frankly act in accordance with the very best requirements.”
Mr Kwarteng it might be “excessively puritanical” to close down parliament’s bars within the hope of ending sexual misconduct and sleaze.
“We’ve received to tell apart between some unhealthy apples, individuals who behave badly, and the overall atmosphere,” he advised the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme. “There are some unhealthy apples, there are individuals who have acted very badly, and they need to be held to account.”
However Labour chief Keir Starmer mentioned that MPs couldn’t cover behind the excuse of stress and lengthy hours to elucidate away behaviour that will not be acceptable in different workplaces.
“We will’t run this argument about this ‘excessive stress tradition’,” he mentioned. “Take duty.
“Neil Parish selected to observe porn in parliament. Tory MPs selected to make disparaging feedback about Angela Rayner. They’ve received to take duty.”
Sir Keir mentioned a “cultural change” in attitudes in the direction of misogyny in parliament wants not solely to be led by the prime minister however to be “modelled” by Boris Johnson in his personal behaviour.
“There’s a cultural concern we’ve got to become familiar with and tradition change must be led from and modelled from the highest,” he advised Ridge.
The federal government had proven repeatedly that, when a Tory colleague will get into hassle, ministers’ “first intuition is to push it off into the lengthy grass, cover what’s occurring,” mentioned Starmer.
And he added: “That’s a political drawback as a result of the fish rots from the top.”
Labour’s deputy chief Angela Rayner wrote to Mr Johnson demanding to know whether or not he might affirm a report within the Sunday Occasions suggesting {that a} Christmas occasion at No 10 in 2020 included an award for “sexist of the yr”.
Setting out his plans for the primary speaker’s convention in Westminster since 2008, Speaker Hoyle mentioned: “I take current allegations of bullying and sexual impropriety, feedback and advances very significantly, which is why it’s time we reviewed our working practices, notably whether or not it’s proper that particular person MPs are the employers of their workers.
“The query is: ought to another person – or an out of doors physique – make use of the workers, so long as the MP has the proper to decide on them?”
SNP chief Nicola Sturgeon mentioned it was turning into more and more troublesome to persaude ladies to take up political roles due to their concern that public life isn’t a “secure house” for them.
“Basically, that is about males accepting that they’re the issue, and altering,” mentioned Ms Sturgeon. “If we don’t change this shortly then the implications and the implications are going to be actually extreme, not only for politics however for ladies in public life extra usually.”
Kaynak: briturkish.com
