Question Time audience member says he doesn't buy Corbyn's 'nice old grandpa' persona
A BBC Question Time audience member told Jeremy Corbyn he doesn't believe in his "nice old grandpa" persona.
The man said he has two young daughters and is “terrified” for them because of what he called the “misogyny that’s happened in the Labour Party”.
He said he had seen a video online where Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth is heckled out of a press conference and Mr Corbyn chats “happily” with the heckler at the end of it.
“I see that video and that tells me all I need to know and I’m terrified for my daughters because I see what you do in that video,” the audience member said.
“I don’t understand how you can say you stand up for human rights and free speech when that’s how you support a Labour MP at a Labour press conference. I think it’s disgraceful.”
Mr Corbyn said that “bad behaviour, misogyny racism in any form is absolutely unacceptable”.
He said he has had conversations with Ms Smeeth since the incident, and admitted he said “hello” to the heckler but the questioner didn’t “know what was said between us”.
Mr Corbyn said many female Labour MPs had “suffered the most unbelievable levels of abuse” and said Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered because of she stood up in public life.
“Bad behaviour, misoginism, racism in any form is absolutely not acceptable in any form whatsoever in my party or in our society,” he said.
Host Fiona Bruce noted that Labour was the second party after the BNP to be investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Mr Corbyn said Labour had laid itself “completely open to it” and it was right its processes of dealing with abuse were being examined.
