Saturday 30 April 2022 The Guardian •
9Josh Halliday
North of England correspondentBoris Johnson is allowing a “wild
west” culture of misogyny to grow
in Westminster by failing to tackle
“the arrogance of privately educated
men ”, England’s only female metro
mayor has said.
Tracy Brabin , the Labour mayor
for West Yorkshire, said : “The idea
that somebody who was elected by
the public is watching pornography
on his phone whilst being at work – I
think it’s an aggressive act in the fi rst
instance, because women and others
will see you doing that. And it’s an
arrogance that they are above the law.
“I think unfortunately it comes
from the top. This behaviour will only
get worse because of the dereliction
of duty of the leader. If you don’t lead
with principles, dignity, inclusivity
and equality then it’s a wild west. It’s
a free for all.”
Her comments came amid renewed
focus on misogyny and sexual mis-
conduct in parliament as a string of
female MPs came forward with exam-
ples of sexism and harassment.
Labour and some senior Conserv-
atives have demanded to know why
the whip has not been withdrawn
from Neil Parish, revealed yester-
day as the pornography -watching MP.
The Conservative chief whip,
Chris Heaton-Harris , has said the
MP for Tiverton and Honiton should
be referred to an independent com-
plaints process.
Brabin, the former Labour MP for
Batley and Spen, is the only woman
among the 10 metro mayors in
England. She heads the M10 group of
mayors, which include the Conserv-
ative Andy Street and Labour’s Sadiq
Khan, and represents 2.3 million
people in West Yorkshire – meaning
she is Labour’s most powerful woman
outside Westminster.
Brabin, a former Coronation Street
actor, said she had not directly been
subjected to misogyny during her fi ve
years in parliament because, she said,
there was cross-party aff ection for
her after the murder of her friend and
predecessor, Jo Cox.
The former shadow culture secre-
tary received a slew of online abuse
after wearing an outfi t that showed
part of her shoulder as she spoke at
the dispatch box in February 2020.
Brabin said: “It was really shock-
ing. Not frightening, it was just
shocking. Men interpreted what hap-
pened in a sexual way .”Culture of
misogyny
‘If you don’t
lead with
principles
and dignity,
then it’s a
wild west’ –
Tracy Brabin
Saturday 30 April 2022 The Guardian •
people protect their own, but their
own being men. Men are much
more likely to be protected by
other men than women are to be
protected.”
Female clerks, researchers
and others working on the
parliamentary estate without the
status of being an MP can face
worse problems. Phillips said: “A
lot of clerks in the past have told
me that they’ve been treated very
sexistly and treated like little girls
and like they’re stupid.”
Louisa Casson, 30, worked as a
political advis er in an MP’s offi ce in
her mid-twenties before moving to
charity work. She said that “laddish
banter” was commonplace, with
MPs commenting on colleagues’
wives and giggling at puerile jokes.
“You’d get quite macho banter
in policy meetings, which I’d
fi nd extraordinary or just quite
uncomfortable,” she said.
“There was a conversation about
blue tits at one point, in the context
of the bird, and a couple of MPs
were sniggering and making jokes
about that.”
For the women who were in
a tiny minority when they fi rst
became MPs, the latest uproar and
debate off er s hope, despite the
behaviour that has been expose d.
Harriet Harman, who in October
will have spent 40 years sitting
on parliament’s green benches,
said: “There’s always been a male
impunity for misogyny in the
House of Commons. And when
there was just a handful of us
women MPs, and we were very
marginalised, it felt impossible to
do anything about it.
“It was my everyday experience,
having a climate of misogyny
from MPs that was amplifi ed by a
collusive press. But for me and the
other women at the time, we just
didn’t feel there was anything we
could do about it. We just had to
grin and bear it and try to get on
with our work.”
Harman said she believe d the
latest backlash against sexism in
Westminster could be the culture’s
death knell. “It’s not all men [who]
are doing it,” she said. “But all
women have experienced it in the
House of Commons. And they’re
just calling time on it.
“ Now because there are many
more wom an MPs and because
they are much more confi dent
and assertive, and because there
are wom an MPs on all sides, they
are not prepared to put up with it
any more. And therefore, the age
of male misogyny in the House of
Commons is going to end ... there’s
going to be no hiding place.”‘You’d get macho banter in policy
meetings. There was a conversation
about blue tits at one point, and a
couple of MPs were sniggering’
Louisa Casson, ex policy advisor