When the Tory MP Philip Davies called for a Commons debate to mark International Men’s Day last week during a backbench business committee meeting, his suggestion was met with laughter from Labour’s Jess Phillips.
Phillips said that despite it being the case that a Commons debate currently marks International Women’s Day, it was ‘laughable’ to suggest that the men should have the same for International Men’s Day. She said that men do not need more opportunities to speak in the House of Commons given the current ratio of men to women.
So when the pair were brought together on the Daily Politics to air their differences, it made for some entertaining viewing. With Phillips not backing down — stating that the ‘idea that men can’t raise issues in Parliament and male parliamentarians don’t have enough opportunities is obviously ridiculous’, Davies accused Phillips of double standards:
PD: If you actually look in Parliament, those things — like the under-achievement of boys in school, testicular cancer rates and the under-reporting of male victims of domestic violence — very rarely get debated and they are real issues.
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