Councillor vows to continue fight against abuse faced by women in politics in Peterborough

Cllr Qayyum (Labour, East), who said she had been the victim of a number of serious threatening and racist online attacks since being elected in May 2019, tabled a motion at last week’s Full Council meeting aimed at tackling abuse and bullying against women in politics from members of the public.

However, councillors were divided when a subsequent amendment looked to broaden the motion to include all political figures, not just women specifically.

Cllr Qayyum’s motion was defeated by the narrowest of margins at the meeting.

Following the meeting, an upset Cllr Qayyum, said: “This is not the end of the matter, only the beginning. My intention was to highlight specifically the abuse women in politics face from members of the public, and I’m very proud to have raised this issue.

“Clearly from what we witnessed [at the meeting], female councillors from all political parties have also had abuse, bullying and harassment of some kind to deal with during their time in public office – some only admitting this for the very first time.

“Yes, I’m disappointed that Cllr Irene Walsh (Conservative, Orton Longueville), as a woman, did not support my motion.

“I want to place on record that I have nothing but admiration for Cllr Walsh and all that she does for many communities.

“But firstly, there was no acknowledgment from her last night that my motion was specifically aimed at highlighting the abuse of women, with all the statistics showing this to be disproportionately the case.

“We offered her the opportunity to withdraw her amendment so that my motion could pass, and Cllr Walsh could then bring her own motion calling for an end to abuse of all councillors – male and female – to the next Full Council; but she felt unable to do so.

“Cllr Walsh explained to me that if she’d done so, it would’ve ‘burnt-out’ the council officers with unnecessary additional work, well, I just don’t buy that.

“Women’s equality is struggle enough, particularly during the pandemic we’re in right now where women like myself are right at the forefront of public health care.

“Matching this with my own experiences, it was a heartfelt plea for people to listen to the incidents of abuse from women.

“It was done so that hopefully, when young females who want to make changes to the society in which they live, feel they can do so without worry of intimidation or without having to concern themselves with what’s going to happen if they take up public office.

“So, my motion didn’t go through – it was amended by Cllr Walsh; but I have no regrets, as I realise now that I have a lot of work to do articulating concerns and experiences of women in politics.

“I want to campaign for awareness, hopefully within the parliamentary arena, and continue the fight for women’s representation until abuses like this stop.”

Cllr Irene Walsh, who brought the ultimately successful amendment to Full Council had also taken time to consider the events of the meeting.

She said: “I must admit that when I first saw the motion [from Cllr Qayyum] I was quite minded to support it, as I agree with her statements.

“There’s a lot of online abuse, and it does deter women from either wanting to become a councillor or from performing their role as well as they would like.

“The reason I brought the amendment was I believe good outcome will come from it, fed into a Task and Finish Group.

“But this is something that’s directed towards both male and female councillors.

“Yes, it was shocking to listen to the stories being told by my fellow female councillors during the meeting – some coming forward for the very first time – but I wasn’t all that surprised, I’m saddened to say.

“I knew it went on; it was directed towards colleagues, it was directed towards me, and I recounted experiences from early on in my own political career.

“The extent of abuse of people in public office, both male and female, is worrying and has been worrying for a long time.

“Unfortunately, it seems politicians are expected to just get on with it, and I’ve even heard from the media that because I’m a political figure and I ‘put myself out there’, I ‘have to expect a bit of a rough ride!’. That sort of attitude is quite frankly comical.

“Had my amendment fallen, we’d agreed as a group [the Conservatives] that we would support Cllr Qayyum’s motion, because this is work that needs to be done. I just felt that it was better if we included everybody at once.

“When a motion comes to council, and is agreed upon, it has to go somewhere for actioning, and in this case it was to feed into a Task and Finish Group looking at issues for women serving in public life.

“That group then comes forward with recommendations to councillors, giving help and guidance how to handle the abuse.

“It seemed to me only logical that the same advice could be shared with our male counterparts, so it would be a waste of officer resources and time to do the work twice over, bearing in mind how over-stretched our officers currently are with so many of them being deployed to Covid-19 work.

“I just didn’t want to add another Task and Finish Group set of jobs to these already overworked people.”

Both Cllr Qayyum and Cllr Walsh explained that since becoming councillors they’ve been no strangers to abuse, bullying and harassment, by members of the public.

Cllr Qayyum has suffered a series of specific online attacks, both verbally abusive and racist, some of which are the subject of an ongoing investigation by the CPS, with a view to prosecution.

Cllr Walsh recalled a disturbing incident involving a colleague who was abused during an election campaign to the extent that he nearly withdrew; but, at the last moment, and with Cllr Walsh’s help, he faced his attacker and won a seat as a city councillor.

The many stories of abuse from nearly all the female councillors in the chamber resulted in a lengthy, and often emotional debate, before the motion went to a vote.

This resulted in stalemate, with 28 votes for the motion (as amended by Cllr Walsh), and 28 councillors against the amendment.

The Mayor has the casting vote in such circumstances and Mayor Gul Nawaz voted in favour of the motion, with the amendment by Cllr Walsh.