The cross-party alliance against women's rights

They don't work for you, they work for Stonewall

At the time of writing, 52 names of British MPs, MSPs and MSs have been identified in response to a Twitter user who asked the following question.

These 52 representatives contain some familiar names. For instance, Penny Mordaunt, who recently said “transwomen are women” from the despatch box, Dawn Butler, who would hardly bite the hand that gives her free holidays to Los Angeles, and Alex Sobel, who answered the question “Do you agree that there should be sex-segregated facilities for women in hospitals, schools, refuges and prisons?” with a flat “no”.

What was surprising and concerning is the quantity of other lesser known names, covering England, Scotland and Wales across five main political parties: Labour (25), Conservative (12), Lib Dem (2), Greens (4) and SNP (9). Have they been subject to some sort of cross-party whip? Or are they simply intoxicated by their desire to please lobbyists and contempt for their voters?

There are 650 MPs sitting in the House of Commons. Excluding retired and devolved government representatives, the number of serving MPs named in less than 24 hours in response to an obscure tweet by a random Twitter user reflected over 6% of the entire House of Commons, and names are still coming in. Both the Chief Whip and Opposition Whip were included.

Many reporting were concerned about confidentiality, knowing the risks to their livelihoods if their ‘gender critical’ stance became public. All expressed a deep concern about being silenced and excluded by their elected representatives. All felt frustrated and betrayed by their MP.

Most reports were from people who had written to their MP directly.  Many had asked about women’s rights only to receive a reply solely about trans rights.

Others had been repeatedly ignored over months, if not years, even after chasing up. Some were told repeatedly that letters were lost or never received, even with evidence of recorded delivery. 

Worse still, families worried about safeguarding their dysphoric children have even been told by their MP that those concerns are simply down to their ‘lack of compassion’. Some had even been told their concerns about safeguarding women and children were ‘abhorrent’, and others were explicitly told they were ‘transphobic’. 

Then of course there are many MPs blocking voters with impunity on social media. Two MPs’ names came up many times--John Nicolson and Peter Wishart-- having blocked many women. It seems they had never previously had any engagement with most of those they blocked. Also reported was a screenshot of another MP’s tweet, who claimed there was a ‘big block’ event, again suggesting use of a blocklist. 

So what’s going on here? Well, until 2020 the House of Commons was a Stonewall Diversity Champion. That’s the same Stonewall who leaned on a lesbian solicitor’s chambers in order to have her dismissed from her job. It may be that the current lapse in membership in the diversity champion scheme is only temporary on account of the pandemic. The time is therefore ripe to properly investigate the extent that regulatory capture has corrupted the heart of government, because evidently acceptance does have exceptions, and they are mostly female.

According to the Parliamentary Code of Conduct, MPs must conduct themselves with ‘selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership’. 

Yet British MPs appear to be using block lists and other methods to cut off contact with their voters, building walls between themselves and sections of their electorate, thereby disenfranchising many of their right to political representation. They certainly aren’t showing any ‘special duty to their constituents’. Some of those who replied to the tweet said they would never write to their MP again. 

Is the behaviour of our MPs creating a chilling effect?

The code of conduct also states MPs are expected ‘to understand others’ perspectives’, and they ‘have a duty to uphold the law, including the general law against discrimination’. Given sex is a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010, and the vast majority of concerns came from women including mothers, grandmothers, lesbian, bi and straight from across the UK, the code of conduct disguises a tragic irony. Those constituents can only look on in horror as the code reveals its impotence, and MPs, convinced of their virtue, fall to corrupting influences. 

It is worth noting that:

‘A Member may not enter into any contractual arrangement which fetters the Member’s complete independence in Parliament, nor may an outside body (or person) use any contractual arrangement with a Member of Parliament as an instrument by which it controls, or seeks to control, his or her conduct in Parliament, or to punish that Member for any parliamentary action.’

If this applies to individual members, how is it ever justifiable that the whole House of Commons has done exactly this by ‘virtue’ of becoming a ‘Stonewall Diversity Champion’? 

Some constituents also wondered why their concerns about women’s rights and child safeguarding were automatically forwarded to specialist LGBTQ+ caseworkers. Are all women and children now part of the umbrella alphabet? Answers might exist in the list of MPs ignoring and dismissing concerns from their constituents. No less than seven members of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Global LGBT+ Rights are named. These include the group’s Chair, Crispin Blunt, as well as Nia Griffith, Caroline Lucas, Christina Rees, Clive Lewis, Mark Menzies, and John Nicolson. 

Notably this All Party Parliamentary Group has links with the originators of the infamous Dentons article, which advocates for deception in policy making, disregard for democratic processes, and significantly seeks to undermine essential child safeguarding practices, including parental consent. This group was also recently discovered breaching Parliamentary rules while its staff continue to be funded by lobby groups. There is evidently intent in Parliament to push policies that would erode women’s rights and essential child safeguarding measures. Ignoring constituents’ concerns is surely part of this process. 

Something insidious and undemocratic is happening in the UK Parliament. Formal complaint and investigation is sorely needed. Sadly on the face of it, constituents appear to have no means to complain beyond the ballot box. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has a very limited scope, leaving Parliament with a code of conduct that can barely be enforced between elections. Constituents may only be able to complain to political parties to intervene, and with limited success. 

It appears that the U.K. is happy to give renegade MPs free rein to treat their constituents with high-handed contempt while they deliver the agenda of aggressive lobby groups in defiance of equality law. The situation may not be unique to the U.K. either - there were replies from overseas, showing this is happening as far away as New Zealand. 

This list of MPs has now been handed over to the Labour Women’s Declaration, who are working in a cross party alliance as part of Women Uniting, along with Conservatives for Women and others. Together they are monitoring MPs’ behaviour towards the erosion of women’s rights and the women standing up for those rights. 

While voters may struggle to appeal to their MP, they can support campaigns that already exist within each party to challenge the disenfranchising status quo. Links to those can be found on the Women Uniting website.

In addition, Sex Matters is a new organisation that recognises a sustained campaign is needed to undo the damage done to institutions across society, and secure everybody’s human rights. One of their first actions is a letter to the Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. Add your name here and call for a public inquiry into ‘Stonewall Law’.

When voters are silenced, insulted and ignored by MPs for raising safeguarding concerns, especially about children and the loss of women’s existing rights, leaving them all afraid for their safety, something has gone seriously wrong in Parliament.

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Some details on just a few of those representatives on the list….

Alex Sobel, Leeds North West, Labour: called constituents who raised concerns about women’s rights ‘bigots’      

Emily Thornberry, Islington South and Finsbury, Labour.  Told a family (who were concerned about the wellbeing of their dysphoric child) that their issue was actually their own lack of compassion  

Jeremy Miles, Neath, Labour: Confirmed pro trans stance to the detriment of women’s rights and safeguarding. Ignores all gender critical enquiries unless pushed. Claimed emails and letter sent by ‘signed for’ recorded delivery weren't received. 

Mark Ruskell, Mid-Scotland and Fife, Greens: Blocking women on social media. Multiple complaints               

John Nicolson, Ochil & South Perthshire, SNP: Multiple complaints. Also blocking women on social media with no prior contact                      

Cheryl Gillan, Chesham and Amersham, Conservatives: Ignores all correspondence on women's rights and gender critical concerns

Robert Largan, High Peak, Conservatives: Replies to concerns about women's rights by talking about trans rights

Harriet Harman, Camberwell and Peckham, Labour: Ignored correspondence for 3 months, then replied to letters about women's rights with a response about trans rights

Anthony Browne, South Cambridgeshire, Conservatives: Multiple reports. Avoided replying then sent a non committal letter talking about trans rights       

Darren Jones, Bristol North West, Labour: Talks about trans rights when women's rights are raised              

A NOTE TO MPS:

If you have an issue with your inclusion on this list perhaps it might be an idea to reassure female voters that you agree with their existing rights under the Equality Act 2010, and affirm your willingness to be available to discuss these issues? If so, let either the good women at Uniting Women or Sex Matters know and I’ll update the article and list.

A NOTE TO VOTERS

If your MP is not on this list and you would like to know where they stand on these issues, you can use Write To Them or you can contact the many GC groups working within their parties like Conservatives for Women, Labour’s Women’s Declaration, Gender Critical Greens and new arrivals Liberal Voice For Women.

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Thanks to Pip for this brilliant and scandalous story. I will be sending it to Baroness Emma Nicholson (Conservatives) and Lord Philip Hunt (Labour) with a request they look into the matter. As the non-partisan nature of the list proves, this is not a party problem. This is a democracy problem.

Oh, and I never got a reply from my MP, Clive Lewis.