The Labour MP Jess Phillips has defended her claim that mass sex attacks in Cologne were similar to the situation faced by women in Birmingham city centre every week, arguing that sexual harassment “wasn’t something that refugees have brought into our country”.
Phillips was asked by an audience member on BBC1’s Question Time on Thursday night about the attacks near Cologne railway station on New Year’s Eve. The MP for Birmingham Yardley said that “a very similar situation to what happened in Cologne could be described on Broad Street in Birmingham every week where women are baited and heckled”.
Speaking to the Birmingham Mail on Friday, Phillips defended the comments. “In every city there will be places where there are groups of men, drunk, and lots of stuff going on, and women have to constantly worry about being felt up and suffering street harassment,” she said.
“This isn’t something that refugees have brought into our country. This is something that’s always existed. And every woman I have spoken to this morning has said: ‘Yes, I’ve had bad experiences.’ In fact, it’s more notable when you go out and you don’t get felt up.”
Her comments on Thursday night provoked a backlash, with one Birmingham police officer, Insp Gareth Morris, insisting that the city centre was a “safe, positive and vibrant place”. He said: “I would invite anyone to come and enjoy a night out in Birmingham and experience what the city has to offer.”
But the MP said: “All the people saying it doesn’t happen – lots of men telling me it doesn’t happen – well no, it doesn’t happen to you. But I remember being a young woman going out and having to constantly fight off groups of lads trying to feel you up and shout stuff at you, and people pulling up in cars asking you to get in them.
“It happens to young women all the time, and we shouldn’t think that is a phenomenon brought to us by one group of people.”
She added: “Everyone who took part in a sexual assault in Cologne should be convicted. But if we convicted everyone who groped women in this country, we’d have no space in our prisons to put them in.”
Asked whether the prime minister believed that problems equivalent to those experienced in Cologne were taking place in Birmingham and other cities in the UK, a Downing Street spokesman replied: “No.”
A ferocious debate erupted in Germany this month over the handling of mass sexual assaults and muggings carried out by groups of young males during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Cologne.
About 100 complaints were made to police, two-thirds of which were linked to sexual assault, including two rapes. According to police and witnesses, the perpetrators were of north African and Arab appearance.
Phillips said on Question Time: “There is violence against women and girls that you are describing, a very similar situation to what happened in Cologne could be described on Broad Street in Birmingham every week where women are baited and heckled.
“We have to attack what we perceive as being patriarchal culture coming into any culture that isn’t patriarchal and making sure we tell people not to be like that. But we should be careful in this country before we rest on our laurels when two women are murdered every week.”
