Bridget Phillipson: ‘Turn back tide of poison’ in British politics

Attitudes which were once “off limits for mainstream politicians” have returned, Bridget Phillipson has warned.

The Women and equalities minister said misogyny and racism were “being normalised” amid a growing “politics of division and fear, of hatred and contempt”.

She also hit out at the Conservatives, led by Kemi Badenoch, and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, questioning their efforts on tackling violence against women and girls.

The Cabinet minister said: “Today so many of the attitudes which we thought we had banished, thought were off limits for mainstream politicians, are back.

“Misogyny and racism being normalised on our streets and on our screens – a politics of division and fear, of hatred and contempt.”

Ms Phillipson spoke at Labour’s women’s conference, held before the party’s backers and activists gather in Liverpool for their annual conference.

She said she had seen “mainstream politicians making skin colour the test not just of nationality, but of character, identity, and motives”.

Conservative former prime minister Rishi Sunak earlier this month made a similar warning, writing in The Sunday Times: “Once we say that this or that person isn’t really English or British because they are not white, then we are on a very slippery slope.”

He added debates around immigration “are going far beyond” a numbers exercise.

“They are trying to turn Britishness into a DNA test,” Mr Sunak said.

Ms Phillipson later told Labour Party activists she had seen “violence against women and girls weaponised”.

She continued: “It’s never Reform campaigning for funding for refuges, is it? It was never the Tories tackling online abuse, was it?

“On their watch – the rape charge rate collapsed, and violence against women and girls soared.

“It is Labour that stood for women then and Labour that stands for women now, Labour that said violence was unacceptable and Labour that stands by that today.

“Conference, this is a tide of poison we can and must turn back.”

Only biological women are permitted to take part as delegates at the women’s conference.

Trans women were blocked from participating in the same way, after a Supreme Court ruling last year that references to “women” in the Equality Act 2010 meant women according to their biological sex at birth.

The decision to exclude trans people has become the subject of criticism, with the Metro newspaper reporting over the summer that some trade unions had planned to boycott the event.