SHIPLEY MP Philip Davies has spoken out against a Parliamentary Bill to tackle violence against women.

The Conservative MP spoke in the House of Commons yesterday against fellow Tory Nusrat Ghani, MP for Wealden, whose Bill was titled “Aggravated murder of and violence against women”.

Mr Davies said he was not condoning violence against women but said such a Bill should also include violence against men.

He told the House: “For the benefit of morons on Twitter, and for some in this House, I wish to make it clear that I, along with everyone else, am opposed to women suffering honour-based violence and I seem to be the only one in this House who opposes honour-based violence against men.

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“We cannot let this trend of having laws that are unjustifiably aimed at dealing with just one gender take hold. Why can’t it be for all victims?”

Mr Davies said there was no more serious crime than murder and that there was nothing honourable about killing.

He added: “If I introduced a Bill which said we were only going to care about families of male victims because there are more of them I suggest most of the people complaining would be up in arms.

“We should be bringing in gender mutual legislation that seeks to help all victims of crime and punishes all offenders of these crimes.

"The discriminatory premise of this Bill is wrong.”

Meanwhile, Mr Davies has receive criticism from Shipley Constituency Labour Party for ‘filibustering’ in Parliament - employing delaying tactics by speaking at length.

It made reference to his attempt to block a bill to tackle violence against women, in which he was unsuccessful, shortly before Christmas, by speaking for more than an hour, and earlier, in 2015, when he succeeded in blocking a bill to give carers free hospital parking, after speaking for 90 minutes.

A spokesman for Shipley CLP said: “We are outraged by Davies’ behaviour and believe his actions should be brought to the public attention.”

But Mr Davies responded that it was the role of all MPs to try their best and block what he called ‘ridiculous’ laws.

He referenced speaking against the carers’ free hospital car parking Bill.

“I did this because the Bill was complete nonsense. It was a dog’s dinner and was completely unworkable," he added.

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