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JEREMY CORBYN was accused of “going for the Taliban vote” yesterday after he sensationally suggested consulting women on combating sexual harassment on public transport.
The Labour leadership frontrunner mooted the idea of women-only railway carriages as part of a wider package of anti-harassment measures.
Mr Corbyn pledged to introduce a cabinet-level women’s safety minister if he is elected leader, along with equivalent portfolios on the executives of local councils.
He also promised to toughen requirements on licensed venues to act when assaults take place on their premises.
“It is simply unacceptable that many women and girls adapt their daily lives in order to avoid being harassed on the street, public transport and in other public places from the park to the supermarket,” he said.
“This could include taking longer routes to work, having self-imposed curfews, avoiding certain means of transport.
“The excellent work of individuals, campaigns and groups like Everyday Sexism and Stop Street Harassment has highlighted just how prevalent street harassment is in our country today.”
National Union of Students vice-president Shelly Asquith, who is advising Mr Corbyn on youth policies, said the package responded to “to the serious issues with solutions women and women’s organisations have been advocating for years.”
“Sexual harassment is too often dismissed and ignored,” she said.
But excitable headlines presenting the women-only carriages as a done deal prompted tirades from angry men on Twitter.
Journalist Owen Bennett, who has written a book on Ukip leader Nigel Farage, said: “Women-only train carriages? Is Corbyn going for the Taliban vote?
“Maybe we could have white/non-white carriages to stop racist attacks as well, yeah?”
But LabourList writer Maya Goodfellow said the policy was “for women to debate, not men.”
“It’s important to point out that asking women what they think about this idea isn’t the same as actually calling for women-only carriages,” she wrote in an article for the grassroots site.
“The disappointingly large numbers of men voicing their outrage over this proposal risk drowning out women’s voices and seem to have misunderstood the (not-so-)fine print.
“This isn’t to say that this idea can’t be criticised but that women should be at the centre of the conversation.”