Mick Hartley

Suzanne Moore in the Telegraph expands on her Sunday Substack piece – To be a woman in the public eye today means pricing in the vitriol:

My sympathy for Rosie Duffield, Labour MP for Canterbury who cannot attend her own party conference because of fears for her safety, is not simply to do with the fact that I agree with her on some issues – there are some I probably don’t – but because I know a little of what it’s like to be monstered.

As a survivor of domestic abuse, as she is, I imagine hypervigilance kicks in, as it does when you have been traumatised. Yet recently chatting to her I was amazed at how upbeat she sounded: “I have been asking for a meeting with Starmer since June as I was struggling.” His response? A text. That’s it. “It’s misogyny isn’t it? The more women are louder and visible, the more vitriol we get.”

In the flesh Rosie, 50, is tiny but was told by trans-rights activists not to attend Canterbury Pride as she would make them feel “unsafe”. She is way tougher than she looks. “I am robust. I am a single parent. I have hidden behind doors from bailiffs. I am a survivor of domestic violence. I have lived on tax credits, so these people don’t scare me.

“The leadership is advised by 20-year-old guys who see everything through a male lens. The abuse is vile and sexualised. I thought things would change when Corbyn went, but no, men still seek to cancel us. The thing is though, I don’t need to ask men about women’s rights. I don’t need to be validated by them.”

Different issues – gender identity replaces antisemitism – but the same mentality in the ranks of the Labour faithful.

Much of the Labour party appear to be keeping their heads down, while the Corbyn faction want Duffield out anyway. Guardian columnist Owen Jones has, as ever, made the issue about himself on his bonkers Twitter timeline. Obviously he is the real victim here. He was beaten up for being gay and left-wing which was a terrible thing. Yet, as Jess Phillips points out when I talk to her: “At least he could report that as a hate crime when, all the times I have been [physically] assaulted, I as a woman cannot do that.”

When it comes to this issue, Jess is her irrepressible self. She doesn’t have to agree with someone to support them: “But if anyone asks me ‘Is Rosie a transphobe?’ I say of course she isn’t.” Unlike her colleagues, she doesn’t keep her head down. “I am so used to people shouting at me I just have to focus on the outcome not the journey.” But even she admits that often the threats “just fell you”. “To be a woman in the public eye means pricing in the vitriol.”

Both of us worry that younger women will not put themselves forward as they cannot handle the abuse. “What we will see in five years’ time is that we don’t have these political women coming down the pipeline.” She has texted and spoken to Rosie to see if she is OK and says: “I know some think it’s not politically expedient to talk about this. But Rosie stands defiant.”

That was my impression, too, and right now we need women to be able to speak freely and to be safe. If not in the Labour Party then where?