Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Siobhán O’Grady.
It didn’t qualify as a crime under the current law, they explained. Martin had been wearing underwear.
Martin decided to start a campaign to make the practice of taking photos up a woman’s skirt without consent — known as “upskirting” — a criminal offense punishable by up to two years in prison. She got support from lawmakers, and on Friday, Justice Minister Lucy Frazer said the government would back the bill that Liberal Democrat lawmaker Wera Hobhouse introduced.
Frazer had called upskirting “a hideous invasion of privacy which leaves victims feeling degraded and distressed.”
But on Friday, when the bill was put forward in the House of Commons, Tory lawmaker Christopher Chope shouted “object!”
Chope was the only lawmaker to object to the bill, but that was enough to halt it from progressing at this time.
When Chope objected, he was met with booing and calls of “shame!” from other members of Parliament. A number of lawmakers also took to Twitter.
Do not underestimate just how furious many Tory MPs are about this. This kind of thing does far more damage to the public's view of our party than endless debates about customs arrangements https://t.co/1SCVsAo7ua
— Paul Masterton MP (@PM4EastRen) June 15, 2018
This is shaming. The @Conservatives I joined believe in human dignity and welcoming ideas that protect our community. The Gov backed the bill to stop #upskirting because there’s no excuse for playing political games with people’s lives. Chope is wrong and should apologise. https://t.co/jePFxDosu2
— Tom Tugendhat (@TomTugendhat) June 15, 2018
Martin said she was “extremely upset and disappointed” and that she spoke to Chope after his objection and he agreed to meet with her to learn more about the bill.
Hobhouse, who introduced the bill, intends to try again in July.
“He hardly knows what upskirting is,” Hobhouse told the Guardian, noting that Chope doesn’t like when private member’s bills come from other parties. “It was meant to be a good news story. We were all lining up to say, this is a modern crime and the government is keeping up with crime created by modern technology, which particularly affects young women and children. It is very, very annoying and frustrating that objections to procedure take precedence for him over the right thing to do.”
