- The Guardian Saturday 30 April 2022
(^8) NationalNational
Politics
- The Guardian Saturday 30 April 2022
(^8) National
Politics
Blast from the past
What life is really like as
a woman in the macho
world of Westminster
Emily Dugan
E
ven as Conservative
whips claimed
they were hunting
down the MP who
made anonymous
derogatory comments
about Angela Rayner this week, one
senior Tory minister was already
making light of it.
Following the claim that
Labour’s deputy leader had been
using a “Basic Instinct” ploy to
distract Boris Johnson, a male
minister was seen making a series
of jokes about women crossing and
uncrossing their legs suggestively
while out in one of parliament’s
bars. The remarks, witnessed by
someone working in Westminster,are the latest sign of a macho
culture it is struggling to shake off.
Five years on from another
scandal at the heart of government,
which led to the sacking of the
eff ective deputy prime minister,
Dami an Green , the slur against
Rayner led to female politicians
raising the alarm over ongoing
misogyny and sexual misconduct- including a Tory MP allegedly
caught watching pornography on
his phone in the Commons.
Female politicians say sexist
and demeaning treatment on the
parliamentary estate continues
unchecked. “Everybody has
experience of sexism, it’s just rife,”
said Alex Davies-Jones , the shadow
minister for Digital, Culture, Media
and Sport. “You know, comments
about appearance, and comments
on what we’re wearing rather than
what we’re saying.”
Three cabinet ministers are
said to be among more than50 MPs facing complaints of
sexual misconduct made to the
parliamentary watchdog.
Many of the most blatant
examples relate to after-hours
drinking in Westminster’s bars.
Lynne Featherstone , who served
as the equalities minister in the
coalition government and now sits
in the Lords, recalled an incident
on the Commons terrace when she
was still a Liberal Democrat MP.
A Labour MP in his sixties “kept
saying to his researchers ‘come
and sit on my knee’ and diff erent
ones were taking a turn sitting on
his knee and giggling and stuff ,”
she said. “It was just horrible to
watch. He was pulling them on to
his knee and they were giggling
because they were young and
impressionable.”
The Labour MP Jess Phillips
recalled seeing similar behaviour
from Conservative MPs.
“I’ve watched older Tory men
having young women sitting on
their laps on the terrace on a late
night,” she said.
In the chamber itself, sexism
comes most often in the form
of patronising or derogatory
comments. It is more than a decade
since David Cameron told Labour’s
Angela Eagle to “calm down, dear”
during a Commons exchange, but
women in parliament say belittling
treatment is still routine.
Phillips, who describes herself
as “quite rowdy in the chamber ”,
sa id she was frequently shushed
by Tories on the opposite benches.
“You get men, and it is always men,
on the opposite benches who treat
you like a harridan for behaving
just exactly as they behave. I’ve hadpeople putting their fi ngers to their
lips and doing the calm down sign
with their hands.
“They wouldn’t necessarily
perceive that they were being
sexist, but they wouldn’t do it to
a man. They wouldn’t shush like
you’re a child in a classroom.”
Anna Soubry, a former minister
and Conservative MP until she
moved to Change UK in 2019, said
one Tory colleague used to tease
her from the benches during every
prime minister’s questions.
“In parliament it gets very hot
and stuff y and I’d sit there and fan
myself with the order paper and I’d
get this : ‘Ooh, are you having a hot
fl ush dear? ’ It really pissed me off
because I wasn’t, but I didn’t know
what to say.”
When she pulled him up on it,
she said he got defensive and said
it was “just a joke”. Soubry said she
believe d he was doing it “to try to
humiliate ”. She added: “Obviously
I never complained about it
because there was no point.”
Soubry said a fellow Tory MP had
also made an “ incredibly shocking”
and “excruciatingly embarrassing”
comment about her body that she
reported to the whips at the time,
who spoke to the man about it.
Phillips said she believed the
worst behaviour c ame down to a
culture of politicians, particularly
men, protecting each other. “I
think there are some people who
do not know how to behave and are
covered by power and friendship to
behave that way,” she said.
“That’s the problem. The
culture in Westminster is not an
overtly sexist one. The culture
in Westminster is one where‘A Labour MP in his sixties kept saying
to his researchers ‘come and sit on my
knee’ and diff erent ones were taking
a turn. It was horrible to watch ’
Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem peer‘I’ve had people putting
their fi ngers to their
lips and doing the
calm down sign. They
wouldn’t do it to a man.
They wouldn’t shush
like you’re a child’
Jess Phillips,
Labour MP