MPs have rallied around Birmingham MP Jess Phillips after she tweeted a picture of rape threats she had received online following her objections to the call for an International Men’s Day debate in parliament.
Phillips was embroiled in a Twitter row after she criticised a call from Conservative MP Philip Davies for a debate on International Men’s Day in the House of Commons “in the spirit of gender equality”.
“As the only woman on this committee, it seems like every day to me is International Men’s Day,” she said during a meeting of the backbench business committee on Tuesday. “When I’ve got parity, when women in these buildings have parity, you can have your debate. And that will take an awfully long time.”
The MP for Birmingham Yardley subsequently tweeted an image of threats she had received. Addressing Davies, Phillips asked if he had ever been subject to such abuse.
Former shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper tweeted that abuse and threats poison the internet, adding the hashtag #IStandWithJessPhillips, while Labour MP Clive Lewis tweeted that “Love ALWAYS trumps hate”.
Vile threats against one of best MPs. Abuse& threats poison the internet. We can't let them. #IStandWithJessPhillips https://t.co/7BQKHHOa0m
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) October 30, 2015
The shadow education secretary, Lucy Powell, said the remarks were disgusting and that she hoped Phillips had reported the abuse. Labour’s Graham Jones tweeted that Phillips was a great colleague and that “we need more honest, working class people in parliament, not less [sic]”.
Conservative MP Gavin Barwell also condemned the remarks as disgusting and urged Phillips to report the abuse to Twitter and the police.
International Men’s Day will be held on 19 November this year. Following his call for a debate to mark the event, Davies told BuzzFeed news: “We have a debate every year in parliament to coincide with International Women’s Day, and in the spirit of gender equality I couldn’t see any reason why the same courtesy couldn’t be afforded for International Men’s Day.
“Actually, the situation’s more acute, because of course for women’s issues, every month they have women and equality questions in parliament. There’s no such way to raise men’s issues.”
