Murnaghan Interview with Jess Phillips, Labour MP, 1.11.15

ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now then a Labour MP has become the latest high profile woman to speak out about the barrage of abuse she has received on social media.  Jess Phillips, who is one of the new intake in the House of Commons, has contacted police about the rape threats that she’s been sent on Twitter.  It came after she dismissed calls from a Conservative backbencher for a debate about men’s rights on International Men’s Day and Jess joins me now.  A very good morning to you.  Some pretty horrible stuff, a lot of which we can’t read out but why did you decide  then – I mean you retweeted some of it but why did you decide to go to the police?  Some people say why don’t you just ignore it and block it, that’s what’s going to happen on social media.  

JESS PHILLIPS: The very worst of the rape threats, I didn’t go looking for it actually, it was emailed to me so I can’t block that, I can’t block what comes through my emails unfortunately and some of the threats that came after the original threats have just come as direct emails to me wishing that my children should be found hanging, that sort of thing.  It’s not just social media, this is just anyone on a platform will have this stuff sent to them so it’s not easy to ignore in that regard but I have blocked – I mean I’ve never blocked so many people before this week, there are probably more people that I’ve blocked than I follow.

DM: Do you think it’s changed then or is changing from being a forum for a global exchange of views, a global noticeboard to now an anonymous troll room as it’s called?  

JESS PHILLIPS: Well I absolutely love Twitter and I won’t let this force me off there.  I think it’s a brilliant way that you can have direct contact with people, either on the other side of the world or famous people or politicians in my case but it does seem to be that you can’t say anything now without being completely and utterly, it’s like a deluge, an actual deluge of people just saying vile things about you.  

DM: Is it the fact that it doesn’t take place face to face?  I mean you’re a politician, it’s a pretty bruising world to get into, we know you’ve had some robust exchanges for instance with Diane Abbott for instance so you can dish it out as the saying goes but can you take it?  

JESS PHILLIPS: I think that the truth of the matter is that any of those people if they were actually faced with me they wouldn’t dare, they wouldn’t dare say these things and that’s why I’m not sitting cowering in my home thinking that anyone who talk about raping me is actually going to do it, I’m not scared but they would never say this stuff to my face mainly because actually I am quite tough and I think that people know that and the reason why people are having a go at me specifically some of the men’s rights activists, is because I am a woman who is quite tough so I hope that that is being well represented.  

DM: On that specific issue, you’re right, men’s rights campaigners say International Women’s Day, what about an International Men’s Day, there are specific issues that face men from prostate cancer to the high suicide rate amongst young men and things like that.  

JESS PHILLIPS: Absolutely and there is an article today about there isn’t a proper gendered approach to male suicide and if anybody were to have a debate in the House of Commons about that I have personal experience of young men attempting to commit suicide, I would be absolutely delighted but I don't think anyone is going to think that Philip Davies was the bastion of equality.  He came to basically have a go at the fact that we have an International Women’s Day and anyone who thinks that he is a great carer about these men’s issues I think maybe should potentially look at his voting record.  

DM: We’ll do that for ourselves but what about the issue of the police investigation?  The police are saying and forces all around the United Kingdom are saying that they are getting so many issues now where social media is being involved in abuse and it is taking up so much of their time, did you do this because you simply couldn’t deal with it yourself?

JESS PHILLIPS: It’s not a case or whether I can or can’t deal with it myself, it’s a case that there is a crime that has been committed, it is a hate crime to incite the violent rape of someone based on their gender and it’s not that I can’t deal with it, as I say I’m quite tough and these people are not going to come after me however I’m a big woman and I’ve got a big voice and I can stick up for myself. It’s the people that this is happening to who don’t have that same platform and that’s the reason.   

DM: Is there a case for the platforms themselves to do more do you think as well?  

JESS PHILLIPS: To be fair to Twitter I think they have got better but yes, absolutely. Reddit is not something I had ever read before but some of the stuff that is going on on Reddit, that’s where it seems to be the worst stuff so I’d like to see them do something but I’ve been told by many people that they will just be like ‘Oh well, whatever.’

DM: Well Jess, thank you very much indeed for coming on today, Jess Phillips there.  

JESS PHILLIPS: Thank you for having me.