Piddington, a small village in Oxfordshire that recently held a symbolic independence referendum, became the focus of a national safety debate after 133 local women drafted an open letter addressed to every female member of parliament.
The letter, sent the day after the referendum, warned that the women “will not feel safe walking our streets” and that they are “already living in fear,” urging MPs to understand the “serious risks” the situation poses for women in the community.
When asked on Sunday by BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg whether the women’s concerns were warranted, women and equalities minister Ms Phillipson replied, “Sadly, yes, women are right to be fearful in society more widely about the attitudes and the normalisation of attitudes towards women and violence against women that I’d hoped we’d made more progress on.”
Phillipson added that the problem is rooted in “harmful, toxic and terrible attitudes” that women face daily, from street harassment to sexual intimidation at gigs and abusive language in schools, and called for a collective effort to shift the culture.
In the same interview, the minister stressed that while individual cases deserve attention, the broader challenge of gender‑based violence must be tackled by society as a whole.
Separately, Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester and Woodstock, Calum Miller, was quoted by Sir Ed as illustrating how decisions on asylum‑seeker accommodation can go wrong, describing a proposal to house large numbers of young men on an ex‑MoD site as “a very bad decision.” Sir Ed argued that faster processing of asylum applications would allow those without a right to remain to be deported and those with a right to move on with their lives out of hotel accommodation.