"Online misogyny must be stopped' says MP

PLYMOUTH MP Luke Pollard has hailed a Labour plan to try and stop the spread of online misogyny among young men.

- CARL EVE

In the wake of the Keyham shooting, committed by a young man who had frequented incel [involuntary celibate] talk sites and who had made reference to the extremist views of other incels during YouTube rants, a national debate arose of how to deal with the issue of online misogyny.

Mr Pollard, MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, accompanied families of those murdered by Jake Davison when they met with the Security Minister warning that more action needed to be taken to tackle rising concerns over the online incel culture.

This issue was compounded in Plymouth following the horrifying murder of a young student in Leigham who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by Cody Ackland, who led a secret life fascinated with serial killers, predominantly those who targeted women.

Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson MP has now announced Labour will give teachers the tools to end the scourge of sexual harassment by young men influenced by online misogyny, with new digital literacy and safeguarding measures.

Since the Keyham tragedy of August 2021, Luke has campaigned for the government to adopt a strategy to tackle incel culture on the internet. He raised the issue in his Private Members’ Bill – called Keyham’s Law – as well as in meetings with Ministers and in the House of Commons.

Luke has also held roundtables in Parliament with experts like the Centre for Countering Digital Hate and the National Education Union to make the case for an incel strategy. School inspection data, provided by Ofsted, found mentions of the terms ‘sexism’, ‘misogyny’, ‘sexual harassment’, ‘sexual abuse’ and ‘safeguarding incident’ had grown by more than 400% between 2019 and 2022.

Labour’s plans will comprise: