Dominic Raab was ridiculed after he got confused about the meaning of misogyny on live breakfast TV.
Misogyny is hatred aimed specifically against women and some campaigners would like to see it criminalised in the wake of recent murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa.
Misunderstanding the term, the Justice Secretary said misogyny is “absolutely wrong whether it’s a man against a woman or a woman against a man”.
Mr Raab made the slip-up when he backed Boris Johnson’srefusal to make hatred against women a crime following calls from Mayor of London and feminist campaigners to criminalise misogyny.
He told BBC Breakfast. “I think we have often seen, in the criminal justice system over decades, people trying to legislate away what is an enforcement problem.
“But I don’t think that will tackle the problem in the case of Sarah Everard that is very serious and we take very seriously or the wider challenge of getting more prosecutions through to successful convictions of violence against women and girls.”
Mr Raab was pressed on whether he meant to say the words misogyny is “absolutely wrong whether it’s a man against a woman or a woman against a man”.
He said: “What I meant was, if we are talking about things below the level of public order offences of harassment, intimidation, which are rightly criminalised – if we are talking about, effectively, insults with a sexist basis, I don’t think that criminalising those sorts of things will deal with the problem that we have got at the heart of the Sarah Everard case.”
Mr Raab added criminalising insulting language would detract from actual violence.
He said: “Therefore, just criminalising insulting language – even if it’s misogynistic – does not deal with the intimidation, the violence and the much higher level of offence and damage and harm that we really ought to be laser-like focused in on.”
His confusion over what misogyny meant sparked conversation on social media as many Twitter users mocked Mr Raab for his blunder.
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Writer Phil Harrison tweeted: “ I think what we’re missing about the Raab #misogyny clip is that while he might well be genuinely ignorant, he’s also trying to gaslight women and ‘both sides’ the issue. It’s a proper Trump move - both in its bone-headed stupidity and in its malice.”
Labour MP Jo Stevens wrote: “And you’re absolutely wrong too @DominicRaab Happy to lend you a dictionary #misogyny.”
Labour MP Catherine McKinnell added: “So we’ve all seen the ‘I’m a heartless Tory and I don’t care’ approach to politics, but this is just getting stupid.”
The Mayor of London urged for change in the wake of the murder of primary school teacher Ms Nessa.
