A day of sneering, aggressive misogyny at the heart of British democracy
17th of January 2023 was a shameful day in UK politics
The decision by the UK government to intervene over Scotland’s Gender Recognition prompted a debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Rarely has the sneering contempt with which many of our elected representatives view women’s rights and safety been in such sharp focus.
Heckled as she rose to speak, Labour MP, Karin Smyth commented, “It is not acceptable for people to stand up here to talk about women's sex-based rights and to be barracked by men”. But that is exactly what happened throughout the session.
Rosie Duffield, Labour MP for Canterbury, was jeered at and shouted down by men from the SNP and the Labour Party when she spoke about the effect of the bill on women’s rights.
She talked of the need for single-sex spaces such as female prisons and domestic violence shelters. “The Bill clearly conflicts with the Equality Act and would have repercussions for women across the UK. Does the Secretary of State recognise the strength of feeling among women and women's rights groups?”, she asked.
She had barely started speaking when she was shouted and jeered at by male voices from the Labour and SNP benches.
In 2019 Rosie Duffield spoke in the House of Commons about the domestic violence she had suffered, moving colleagues to tears. A few years later and men in The House felt able to harass her for speaking out about women’s need for safe space.
Charlotte Nichols, Labour MP for Warrington North and former Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, reacted to Rosie Duffield’s speech with a head-shake and an expression of lip-curled derision.
Appearing on GB News after the debate, Labour MP and Shadow Attorney General, Emily Thornberry, tried to deny that Rosie Duffield had been hectored during her speech, claiming that she hadn’t witnessed it.
Similarly, Mhairi Black, the SNP’s deputy leader in the House of Commons, told ITV’s Robert Peston that she didn’t have any sympathy with Duffield.
In March 2018 Black spoke in Parliament about the misogynistic abuse she had suffered. She commented that, left unchallenged, such behaviour is normalised and “Creates an environment that allows women to be abused”. But seemingly it is acceptable when the woman on the receiving end dares to speak up for women’s rights?
Miriam Cates, Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, met a similar response when she stood up to speak.
Cates listed her concerns about the bill in its current form. She spoke of 16-year-olds not being mature enough to understand the long-term effect of ‘changing sex’ on their health, fertility and sexual function. She spoke about the privacy and safety of women and the very real need for female-only single sex spaces. She also spoke about the need to base the law on facts and it just not being possible for a human to change their sex.
Perhaps her most important point was about child safeguarding; “The government is right to be concerned about fraudulent and malign applications with the implications for child safeguarding… predators will exploit any loophole they can find to gain access to children… We shouldn’t be asking how easy is it for someone who is uncomfortable with their sex to obtains a GRC, we should be asking how easy is it for a predator to get access to children”.
It’s hard to disagree with the compassion and common sense of these words. Yet at the end of Cates’ address, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Labour and Co-operative MP for Kemptown & Peacehaven, declared “That speech was one of the worst transphobic dog whistle speeches I’ve heard for an awful long time!”. Ostensibly enraged and behaving very aggressively, he described Cates’ speech as ‘disgusting’ and ‘horrible’. He jabbed his finger towards Cates and yelled at her, “You should be ashamed!”
Commons Deputy Speaker, Dame Rosie Winterton, had to tell Russell-Moyle to ‘calm down’ and ‘moderate his language’.
The following day Russell-Moyle was forced to issue a pathetic non-apology, passing off his lunatic, performative hostility as ‘passion’. He seems to imply that it was Miriam Cates’ fault that he lost his temper because she provoked him by speaking.
In July 2020 we reported on a story concerning Lloyd Russell-Moyle and an article he wrote for The Tribune magazine. His piece was little more than an attack on the women and feminist groups who opposed self ID legislation and it contained all the usual lies and hyperbole. In this article, Russell-Moyle accused JK Rowling of weaponising the sexual assault and domestic violence she has suffered in the past. He said that she was promoting 'hate' towards trans people and exploiting her experience of male sexual and male sexual violence “As justification for discriminating”.
His victim-blaming comments about JK Rowling caused outrage from both within and outside his own party. A scathing article appeared in The Daily Mail and was posted online at around 10pm Saturday night. By 8.05am on Sunday morning, Russell-Moyle had been forced to issue his first sidelong apology.
He did not, however, apologise directly to JK Rowling.
The day after his outburst at Miriam Cates in the House of Commons, Lloyd Russell-Moyle attended at a demonstration in Whitehall protesting the government’s intervention over Scotland’s gender bill.
Together with Labour Party colleagues, Nadia Whittome and Olivia Blake, he shared a platform with Sarah Jane Baker.
Sarah Jane Baker is a trans-identified male formerly known as Alan Baker. As a young man he spent time inside for crimes ranging from drug dealing to armed robbery. He then served 30 years in prison for the kidnap and torture of one of his own family members and the attempted murder of a fellow prisoner.
Baker began identifying as trans while incarcerated. According to a Daily Mail article published in 2013, he received ‘a free sex change on the NHS’.
He was released in 2019 and, since then, has been a vociferous trans activist and the subject of much media attention. In July 2021, Baker paraded half naked through Whitehall ahead of the Reclaim Pride in London March.
At a London Trans Pride March a few weeks earlier, Baker was photographed holding placards, one of which demonstrates his support for the sexual exploitation of women and another which read ‘Be trans, do crime’. There was speculation on social media that, given the huge similarity between the red spray-painted signs, he was also responsible for a placard making a death threat against JK Rowling.
Russell-Moyle screamed insults at a female MP because she is concerned about the safeguarding of women and children and then only hours later he stood shoulder to shoulder with a male who has a history of extreme violence.
How can elected representatives treat women’s rights and safety with such dismissive contempt?
How can they treat women themselves with this level of rudeness, a level of brattishness that you would expect to see from a toddler?
How are men like these getting away with it?
Lloyd Russel Moyles seems to be a particularly nasty and spiteful man, I implore women and men of Kemptown and Peacehaven to ensure he is not re-elected
It's so depressing that they are allowed to attend Parliament when they show such utter and complete misogyny.
The deputy speaker, a woman should have had him thrown out of chamber.
They are given far too much leeway.
As for the Labour women who also went along with this gaslighting narrative they are beyond contempt.