WATCH: Mary Creagh responds to Philip Hammond calling her ‘hysterical’ in the Commons
'That is the sort of language that would not be used had I been a man.'
‘I would urge her not to be hysterical about these things,’ Philip Hammond said of Labour’s Mary Creagh in the Commons today, responding to a perfectly rational question about businesses relocating to Ireland post-Brexit.
Creagh raised the issue in a point of order a few moments later, asking for a ruling from the chair on ‘this sort of sexist language, used to diminish women who make a perfectly reasonable point’.
“I expect that sort of language from the Daily Mail, not the chancellor of the exchequer”
Labour’s Mary Creagh to Philip Hammond pic.twitter.com/WQFwnvsEk2
— Esther Webber (@estwebber) February 28, 2017
She continued:
“That is the sort of language that would not be used had I been a man. My question on the registration of companies in Ireland had nothing to do with the condition of my womb travelling to my head, as is the traditional hysterics rhetoric. I would expect that sort of language from the sketchwriters of the Daily Mail, not from the Chancellor of the Exchequer.”
In response Hammond non-apologised, saying that ‘if my comments caused the Honorable Lady offence, I of course withdraw them unreservedly.’
But he prefaced that by insisting that:
“I, of course, did not accuse the honorable lady of being hysterical, I urged her not to be hysterical.”
Well that’s okay then. In fact, Creagh should really have welcomed the chancellor’ kind advice. After all, where would women be without men reminding them of the ever-present risk of their becoming hysterical?
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