Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Bridget Phillipson and Rupert Lowe

Wednesday 29th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

I thank my hon. Friend for her important question. She will appreciate, I am sure, that I cannot comment on the draft code of practice, but I want to reassure the House that trans people will continue to be protected from discrimination under the Equality Act. We will not treat this issue as a political football, as many others have done in the past. As I set out in earlier answers, I intend to lay the draft code before Parliament as soon as possible, once we are through the election period.

[Rupert Lowe (Great Yarmouth) (Restore Britain)]

T3. Women all over Britain, including in my constituency of Great Yarmouth, primarily on King Street, feel intimidated, harassed and abused in their town centres. Disproportionately, this unacceptable behaviour is committed by young foreign men imported from cultures and religions that treat women like dirt on the bottom of their shoe. Will the Minister today commit to a national audit of street harassment, intimidation and sexual offending by nationality and immigration status, so the British people can finally see the scale of the problem?

[Bridget Phillipson]

Here we go again, Mr Speaker. I note that an investigation by a King’s counsel into the hon. Gentleman’s conduct concluded that there was “credible evidence” that he had mistreated two female team members in a way that seemed “to amount to harassment”. I do not want to hear anything from him about violence against women and girls or harassment.