A Green Party peer has suggested a 6pm curfew should be introduced for men in the wake of Sarah Everard’s disappearance.
Baroness Jones of Moulescoomb told the House of Lords that such a move would “make women a lot safer, and discrimination of all kinds would be lessened”.
Ms Everard vanished while walking home to Brixton, south London, from a friend’s house in Clapham on 3 March.
Detectives searching for the 33-year-old have since discovered human remains in Ashford, Kent.
It follows the arrest of a Metropolitan Police officer on suspicion of kidnap and murder.
Sarah Everard vanished while walking home to Brixton, south London
As peers debated domestic abuse legislation on Wednesday night, Baroness Jones said: “In the week that Sarah Everard was abducted and, we suppose, killed… I argue that, at the next opportunity for any bill that is appropriate, I might put in an amendment to create a curfew for men on the streets after 6pm.
“I feel this would make women a lot safer, and discrimination of all kinds would be lessened.”
The peer’s comments drew some criticism with Susan Hall, the Conservative leader in the London Assembly, posting on Twitter: “OMG the world is going mad. The greens are thinking about a curfew for men after 6pm at night – I’ve heard it all now.”
And Nigel Farage, the former Brexit Party leader, tweeted: “Just in case you thought I was exaggerating when I call the left deranged…
“This Green Party politician wants a curfew for men after 6pm at night.
“A better case for reform of the House of Lords has never been seen.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
MP in Commons reads out names of women killed
Baroness Jones, a former London deputy mayor, has also criticised the police’s reported advice for women in south London to “not to go out alone” this week.
Former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman also referred to the advice as MPs took part in a House of Commons debate to mark International Women’s Day.
“Women know abduction and murder is just the worst end of a spectrum of everyday male threat to women,” she told MPs on Thursday.
“When the police advise women, don’t go out at night on their own, women ask why do they have to be subjected to an informal curfew?
“It is not women who are the problem here, it is men, and the criminal justice system fails women and lets men off the hook.
“Whether it is rape or whether it is domestic homicide, women are judged and blamed.”
Labour’s Jess Phillips read out the names of women killed in the UK where a man has been convicted or charged as the primary perpetrator.
The MP for Birmingham Yardley spent more than four minutes listing the names of the almost 120 victims from the last 12 months.
