Stephen Pollard

character of the man emerges. Even when he realised that he needed a more comprehensive apology, he still could not bring himself to be open.

He went on to say: “I made the comments as a young man, at a particularly difficult time in my life, but that is no excuse. Misogyny is a deep problem in our society. Since making those comments 15 years ago, I have learned about inequalities of power and how violent language perpetuates them. I continue to strive to be a better man and work where I can to confront misogyny…”

Mr O’Mara attempts to excuse his behaviour (despite the ironic words on the basis that he was just 20 years old at the time) and has since become the very model of a modern man. I don’t know what you were like as a 20-year-old but I can hazard a guess as to what you weren’t like. My guess is that you didn’t speak in any way like Mr O’Mara.

And here’s where we see the real Jared O’Mara. Because after his supposed apology was released, it was then revealed that it wasn’t just women who were the subject of his vile language. It was also gay men.

On an internet message board he posted that homosexuals are “fudge packers” who “drive up the Marmite motorway” and that gay people are “bitter and resentful about being homosexual”. It’s pretty clear what sort of man Mr O’Mara is. It could hardly be clearer. But the response of many of his fellow Labour MPs (with some honourable exceptions like Jess Phillips) has not been to condemn him. It has been to back him and protect him.

Shadow Cabinet member Dawn Butler – ironically the Shadow Equalities Minister – said yesterday: “Jared has gone on a journey. I think he probably has more of a journey to go on.” How difficult would it be to say, simply, there is no place in a modern party for someone who thinks like that?

After Mr O’Mara addressed the PLP on Monday night, Labour MP Wes Streeting wrote that his colleague deserved a second chance. As it happens, all sorts of allegations are now emerging of more recent similar behaviour – such as allegedly saying this to one woman in March: “I wouldn’t touch you with a manky woman’s **** , you ugly bitch.”

BUT there’s a deeper point here, which is that none of this is in any way surprising. The reason Mr O’Mara’s behaviour has not been instantly and universally condemned is because it is not errant behaviour at all.

That same word – bitch – crops up remarkably often in the language of male Labour MPs. Earlier this month, Corbynite MP Clive Lewis was recorded telling an audience member at a Momentum rally: “Get on your knees, bitch.” It was, he said, a joke.

So that’s OK then. And in 2014 John McDonnell, now the Shadow Chancellor, called the then employment minister, Esther McVey, a “bitch” and said she should be “lynched”.

Oh how they laughed at that, too. On one level we should be shocked that such thoughts and such language are part of the political armoury of politicians in a mainstream party.

But look through history and you’ll see that in any extreme grouping – of both Right and Left – the language of violence and violent insults is commonplace. And today’s Labour Party is in the hands of the extreme Left.

In the scheme of things, Mr O’Mara is insignificant. But he, or rather his behaviour, matters. Because this is just the start.

‘Pretty clear what sort of a man O’Mara is’