Tulip Siddiq
Main Page: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Tulip Siddiq (Hampstead and Highgate) (Lab)
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. During Prime Minister’s questions today, the Leader of the Opposition called the Secretary of State for Education a “spiteful class warrior”, and previously she has compared her to a Gestapo officer. I started working in Parliament when I was a teenager, and in 25 years of being involved in politics, I have never seen the atmosphere here in Parliament and outside to be quite so hostile and intimidatory, especially towards female elected representatives.
Words matter, and inflammatory language contributes to this hostility towards politicians, especially women. Could I ask your advice, Madam Deputy Speaker, on whether the language used by the Leader of the Opposition today towards the Secretary of State for Education—a woman who grew up in poverty on a council estate, was raised by a single mother and was on free school meals, and worked her way up to the Cabinet—is appropriate to be used in the Chamber? I ask because not only does this language contribute to hostility, it puts off women from coming into this important profession.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)
I thank the hon. Lady for her point of order. Hon. Members are responsible for what they say in the Chamber, and we do not write the scripts for colleagues. “Erskine May” states:
“Good temper and moderation are the characteristics of parliamentary language.”
I remind all Members that that is the way they should be conducting themselves inside the Chamber.