To Anti-Corbyn Labour MPs From Female Victims Of Abuse And Violence:

 

As women who both support Jeremy Corbyn, and who have at some point in our lives been victims of violence, harassment, misogyny and abuse, we call upon Labour MPs who oppose Jeremy Corbyn, to cease their generalised smearing of Corbyn supporters as abusive misogynists, with the sole aim of smearing Jeremy Corbyn as someone who somehow attracts them.

Jeremy Corbyn is a man who abhors violence and misogyny. As women who have been victims of both, we could not support him otherwise. To extrapolate incidence of abuse and violence (particularly when the perpetrators claim to support a man who condemns such behaviour and attitudes) with Jeremy Corbyn supporters in general, is like extrapolating fathers who sexually abuse their children with all fathers, or children who bully their peers with all children.

Abuse and violence which we know from our own experiences, can shatter lives and leave both physical and psychological scars, should not be exploited by those with a wider political agenda. Instead Labour MPs need to focus on the fact that misogynistic attitudes are rife in all walks of life.

One only needs to look to a disturbing TUC survey, which reveals how two thirds of women have been victims of sexual harassment in the work place, to appreciate the scale of the problem.

To single out Jeremy Corbyn supporters the way you repeatedly do, reveals your true motives, which is not to raise a society wide issue that affects the majority of women, but to tarnish the image of a decent man and his supporters, which include women who have been victims of abuse and violence.

By all means call out the individuals who engage in abuse, harassment and misogyny, for that is what they are, individuals. And please join us in the battle for a world in which no woman lives in fear or anxiety because of the actions of men with sexist attitudes.

But please stop smearing Jeremy Corbyn supporters like ourselves for your own political ends.

 

Signatories:

Chelley Ryan

Shelley Hutchings

Laura Clarke

Morag Davies

Coilla Drake

Judith Reynolds

Maureen Liston

Elaine Rigby

Imogen Harris

Elizabeth Greener

Eileen Kersey

Karen Broady

Sarah H Tyrer

Linda Foord

Beverly Bryan

Fran Yeldham

Reba Bur

Annie Singh

Rachel Littlewood

Anne Ward

Dominique Payne

Sandra Nicol

Jane Basham

Emily Jones

Dinah Mulholland

Linda Lomax

Sandra Ferguson

Janice Finn

Valerie Pedrick

Joanne Rogers

Kate Gibson

Clarissa Minns

Mary Mc Veagh

Linda Shepperd

Jeannette Marshall

Cari Spokes

Tracy Bytheway

Maureen Dickens

Paula Bartram

Christine Mooney

Jaci Quennell

Amanda Collingridge

Sally Churchwood

Sue Brock

Lucia Mack

Julia de la Harpe

Janette Murphy

Juliette Emery

Barbara Cairns

Amanda Toone

Kelly Therese Ludlow

Lee Dickenson

Colette Riley

Sheila Scoular

Geraldine Howlette

Julie Dean

Elisabeth Makin

Joan Rudderham

Daina Gregory

Linda Webb-Thornton

Fiona Ranson

Liz Wilkins

Helen Brown

Zoe Blackmore

Sarah Morgan

Clare McDermott

Debbie Litchfield

Fran Springfield

Kayleigh Graveson

Lesley Spillard

Clare Farrall

Bonnie Craven

Hazel Eastmond

Celeste R West

Dana Rodericks

Bethany Hunt

Janet Willicott

Roseanna Walker

Sandra Roberts

Hazel Salisbury

Fenella Roberts

Madaam McGonagal

Marsha Lowe

Alice Faith Murray

Anissa Jabbar

Lea Bentley

Abigail E. Ottley Wyatt

Carol Buller

Chloë Meredith

Susie Jewell

Ellie Hilton

Billie Dale Wakefield

M S Carruthers

Jane Menguy

Julia Mountain

Marion Pergande

Zoe Zeero

Holly Fletcher

Kim Roper

Evelyn Emery

Jane Davies

Amanda Hunter

Eve Hooper

Monica Zocca

K Southeby

Annie Carlin

Jen Wood

Peggy Robertson

Eleanor Buffam

Pascale Gillett

Geraldine Moore

Celia Villa-Landa

Gill Kennard

Gill Connell

Betty Farruggia

Anya-Nicola Darr

Cathy Murphy

Vicki Lackenby

Anne-Marie Roberts

Hilary Coombes

Samantha Lealman

Hilary Temple

MLouise Bath

Holly Sutherland

Krista James

Christine Davies

Elaine Halliday

Maisie Carter

Liza Simon

Linda Ann Stoker

Daveena Daley

Catherine Powell

Michele Rowell

Nikki Scambler