Since Jess Phillips was elected as the MP for Birmingham Yardley in May, the Labour politician has become known for her outspoken views — previously telling Diane Abbott to ‘f— off’. However, her straight-talking approach reached new heights during last night’s episode of Question Time after she likened the Cologne sex attacks to a night out in Birmingham.
Discussing the refugee crisis on a panel made up of Angus Robertson, Patrick McLoughlin and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Jess Phillips was asked whether Britain could cope with more immigrants in light of the Cologne sex attacks in Germany or the woman who was killed in Sweden.
However, discussing the Cologne attacks — which saw over a 100 women report sexual assault and robbery by gangs of male immigrants on New Year’s Eve — the ardent feminist responded that the alleged assaults were actually ‘a very similar situation’ to what happens in Birmingham on a night out on Broad Street — the popular nightspot:
‘There is violence against women and girls that you are describing, a very similar situation to what happened in Cologne could be described on Broad Street in Birmingham every week, where women are baited and heckled.’
With Birmingham residents keen to make the point that hundreds of women are not molested on a Saturday night out in the city, Ukip’s Suzanne Evans has chipped in. She says that during her time living in Birmingham she was never assaulted and never heard of such attacks.
Mr S suspects Phillips may receive a hostile reception on returning to her constituency this weekend.
Update: West Midlands Police have responded to Phillips’s claim. Birmingham Police Inspector Gareth Morris says: ‘like any city centre we have issues linked to people out drinking, but the types of attacks reported in Germany are a million miles away from anything my team encounters in Birmingham’.
While over 800 women reported sex attacks on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, five sex attacks were reported in the space of 12 weeks in Birmingham’s Broad Street.
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