We monitor the mainstream media for mentions of Philip Davies MP, and so far the only coverage we’ve seen of his contribution to yesterday’s Domestic Abuse Bill second reading is in this piece in The Yourshire Post. The full extract:

In the same debate Tory MP for Shipley Philip Davies said parental alienation should be seen as a form of domestic abuse.

Philip Davies said it was a “growing phenomenon” and “leads to suicide amongst people” as he called for its inclusion in the Bill.

Mr Davies said he had been “increasingly troubled” by the levels of parental alienation where one parent tries to turn the children against the other parent, using their child as a “weapon in their dispute”.

He said: “I think that where there is no good reason for a parent to remove the contact of that child from the other parent, I think that parental alienation should in itself be seen as a form of domestic abuse.”

He added: “I think that when a child is deliberately turned against the other parent for no good reason, that should be included in the definition of domestic abuse.”

Mr Davies added that when people make a false allegation of domestic abuse, the Government should consider that to be a form of domestic abuse in the legislation.

He said: “That is one of the most terrible things that somebody could be wrongly accused of.”

Mr Davies said he wanted to try and stop the idea that “domestic violence is a gender based crime, it is not.”

He added: “We will be doing a huge disservice if we were to run away with that idea and make this piece of legislation work only on that basis.

“Men are perpetrators of domestic violence, men are victims of domestic violence. Women are perpetrators of domestic violence, women are victims of domestic violence.”

He added: “We in this House have a duty to treat everybody equally before the law and I hope that – it doesn’t matter whether the perpetrator is a man or a woman, they should face the full rigour of the law and whether the victim’s a man or a woman, they should have exactly the same safeguards by this House.”

He went on: “So let’s not say – this isn’t gender based violence, this is unacceptable violence by all sorts of people and we should treat them all equally before the law.”

Intervening, Tory chairwoman of the Women and Equalities Committee Maria Miller said: “He needs to accept the facts that women are more affected by domestic violence than any other group.” [J4MB: Does Philip “need to accept” that more white people are affected, than any othrt group?]

And later Tracy Brabin, MP for Batley and Spen said women were twice as likely to suffer as victims of domestic abuse and men were more likely to be perpetrators. [J4MB: She’s wrong on both counts.] She said the gendered nature of domestic abuse could not be ignored. [J4MB: Wrong again. Domestic abuse is NOT gendered.]

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