A Labour MP has suggested John McDonnell’s comments about “lynching” Esther McVey could be considered a hate crime. During a debate on “misogyny as a hate crime” in Westminster Hall this morning Tory MP Philip Davies asked Labour’s Melanie Onn whether McDonnell’s comments fell under that remit. Onn said:

“If the individual to whom the comments were directed were to feel that that was something they wished to report, then I think it would fall within the scope of the discussions that we are having today. Those sorts of comments are unnecessarily aggressive, I do not think there is any place for them, certainly not in the nature of political debate and discourse.”

Always worth a reminder of the 2014 comments, for which McDonnell has repeatedly refused to apologise for or withdraw:

Here is the clip of @johnmcdonnellMP from 2014 repeating comments about ‘lynching’ Tory MP Esther McVey #bbcsp pic.twitter.com/92MJTbYLX9

— BBC Daily Politics and Sunday Politics (@daily_politics) 14 January 2018

Labour women standing up to brocialism…