Presidents Club Charity Dinner Debate

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Department: Department for Education

Presidents Club Charity Dinner

Lucy Powell Excerpts
Wednesday 24th January 2018

(6 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Anne Milton Portrait Anne Milton
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Today’s contributions from all around the House should send an important message to businesses that such behaviour is unacceptable, but this does not just happen at big charity events. We have heard about sexual abuse and harassment in this House but, believe you me, it is also going on in the workplaces of businesses up and down the country.

Lucy Powell Portrait Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) (Lab/Co-op)
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I suggest to the Minister that this is more than a collective misjudgment; it is a deliberate sticking up of two fingers to those who are perceived to be part of the PC culture. One way in which her Department could root out this behaviour is to expedite the introduction of compulsory personal, social, health and economic education in our schools, so that at least the next generation of men will know that it is totally unacceptable.

Anne Milton Portrait Anne Milton
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Sex and relationships education is now compulsory. The hon. Lady raises an important point that the hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley (Jess Phillips) also raised. What really matters is that we breed a new generation of young people who understand where the boundaries lie. What has gone so terribly wrong that we have bred young men—I suggest that a lot of people at the event were perhaps 20 or maybe even 30 years younger than me—who think that this sort of thing is acceptable?