Labour sexism storm over MP who said: I’d like orgy with Girls Aloud
So just as well he’s quit role on women and equalities committee
A LABOUR MP quit the Women and Equalities Select Committee in disgrace last night after he made a series of sexist and homophobic comments.
Jared O’Mara, who had been a rising star in the party, said he was ‘deeply ashamed’ of the posts which included the suggestion that he wanted an orgy with the pop band Girls Aloud, homophobic remarks and the claim that fat people do not ‘deserve our respect’.
He also said that it would be ‘ quite funny’ if the jazz singer-songwriter Jamie Cullum died after being sodomised.
The remarks triggered a storm of fury and calls for him to stand down as a mem-
‘No great loss to the music world’
ber of the Women and Equalities Committee – which he finally did last night. Mr O’Mara, 36, who won Nick Clegg’s former seat of Sheffield Hallam, apologised, saying he was ‘deeply ashamed’ of the online comments. He has previously been accused of making offensive comments about women, including saying he wanted to ‘ smash’ them in the face, as well as calling a constituent an ‘ugly b****’.
It is the second sexism row to hit the Labour Party after MP Clive Lewis was forced to apologise after a video emerged of him telling someone to ‘get on your knees b****’ last week.
It is likely to lead to further claims that Labour has become the new ‘nasty party’.
Yesterday, Nadine Davies, Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire, said: ‘So with Clive Lewis and Jared O’Mara, safe to say Labour can no longer pretend to be the party of equal opportunities and diversity.’ Mr O’Mara’s comments included a post on the Drowned in Sound music website in 2004, in which he said: ‘Girls Aloud – I advise you to sack Sarah and the remaining four members (Nicola, Cheryl, Nadine and Kimberley) come have an orgy with me.’
He mocked celebrities including singer Michelle McManus, who he said only won Pop Idol in 2003 ‘ because she was fat’. This followed rants in which he criticised the overweight, calling them ‘ fatties’ who are ‘deified’ in the West and do not ‘deserve our respect’. He made a tasteless comment about Jamie Cullum, posting: ‘It would be no great loss to the music world if he was sodomised with his own piano and subsequently died of a sore arse. In fact, it would be quite funny.’
Other remarks on online message boards attributed to Mr O’Mara include the use of derogatory terms about gay people, including ‘poofter’. He has previously been accused of calling a constituent ‘an ugly bitch’ and once performed a song with the chorus: ‘I wish I were a misogynist, I’d smash her in the face’, according to the website. Yesterday, he apologised for his
‘Nasty pattern of misogyny’
comments, initially saying he planned to sit on the committee and ‘learn’ from feminists and equalities groups to ‘ tackle misogyny where I can’.
He added: ‘ I am deeply ashamed of the comments I made online. I was wrong to make them, I understand why
they are offensive and sincerely apologise for my use of such unacceptable language.
‘Since making those comments 15 years ago, I have learned about inequalities of power and how violent language perpetuates them. Misogyny is a deep problem in our society.’
His comments prompted calls for him to be sacked from the women and equalities committee by politicians from across the spectrum.
Lib Dem peer and former leader of Sheffield Council Lord Scriven said: ‘It seems a nasty pattern of sexist language and misogyny is developing from the Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam.
‘He clearly isn’t fit to sit on the Women and Equalities Committee.
‘He must stand down from that committee immediately and if he doesn’t, Jeremy Corbyn must take action to remove him. Voters in Sheffield Hal- lam…are beginning to question what kind of MP he is.’
Tory MP for Broxtowe Anna Soubry tweeted: ‘How on earth did #Labour select him? Feel sure the ppl [people] of #Hallam #Sheffield would have rejected him if they’d known of his past.’
But his fellow Labour MPs adopted a more forgiving tone. Jess Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley, wrote on Twitter that she was ‘sad he said and thought it, I’m glad he’s apologised’, adding: ‘I hope people are learning.’
Labour MP Tulip Siddiq, who also sits on the committee, said: ‘Jared’s comments are obviously unacceptable and he’s rightfully apologised.
‘Jared has, however, told me that he’s been on a very long journey since he posted the comments 15 years ago, and it takes some selfawareness to acknowledge that and say it publicly.’