Home Secretary Suella Braverman has backed a private members’ bill that would outlaw wolf-whistling even if the person responsible thinks it is “just a joke.”
Wolf-whistles and cat calls are just one type of “sex-based harassment” included in the bill which has been proposed by Conservative backbench MP Greg Clark.
The bill makes it an offence to cause “intentional harassment, alarm or distress” to a person in public based on their sex, and offenders face a maximum of two years in jail.
On Friday, Clark told the House of Commons: “For the first time in our history, deliberately harassing, following, shouting degrading words at, making obscene gestures at women and girls in public places and yes, on occasion, men and boys in public places because of their sex with the deliberate intention to cause alarm or distress will be a specific offence and a serious one.”…