Labour MP Rosie Wrighting has defended Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner after she took aim at Nigel Farage.
Ms Rayner has been highly critical of the Reform UK leader’s stance on the Online Safety Bill, saying he risks fuelling revenge porn culture.
The bill aims to prevent children from accessing harmful content such as pornography or material that encourages suicide.
Mr Farage thinks the bill opens the door to censorship and potentially risks the future of free speech.
Rosie Wrighting said Mr Farage has questions to answer
|GB NEWS
Senior Labour figures have been using his opposition as a stick to beat him with, for example Peter Kyle said it puts him on the side of predators like Jimmy Savile, a comment Mr Farage branded “absolutely disgusting”.
Ms Rayner is the latest to strongly criticise the leader, and Ms Wrighting said on GB News she is right to do so.
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Asked by GB News’s Anne Diamond why the party is getting “personal”, she said: “Nigel Farage and Reform are our main opposition leading up to the next election.
“They should be coming up with policies to the questions the public have about keeping women and girls safe online.
Rosie Wrighting joined Stephen Dixon and Anne Diamond on GB News
|GB NEWS
“I think it’s only right if he wants to govern our country he has answers to those questions.”
GB News’s Stephen Dixon said revenge porn has been addressed by historic bills, to which Ms Wrighting responded: “There’s lots of women who have campaigned on this.
“These platforms, whether they are porn websites or online tech platforms, have made sharing intimate content without the consent of the person in that content…”
“That’s already a criminal offence regardless of the Online Safety Bill”, Stephen countered.
A poll shows more than 70 per cent of people fear updates to the Online Safety Act could lead to censorship of information which is 'critical on immigration' | PAThe Labour MP responded: “It has been that the copyright is owned by the person who has put that content online, not necessarily the person in the content.
“It has been really difficult to get these big tech platforms to take down these explicit images of young women and girls which might be online without them knowing.
“That is a reality for almost one million young women and girls in England and Wales.
“I was one of the first generations to grow up online and I know the dark and dangerous place growing up online can be and how you can be exposed to content you might not feel properly able to communicate to an adult about or know how to have it taken down.
“The Online Safety Act puts that responsibility to those big tech platforms and makes it one of the most serious online crimes.”
Under the new rules introduced through legislation at the end of July, social media sites, search engines and other online platforms have a prerogative to take steps to ensure better protections are in place for children.
Reform has pledged to repeal the law and replace it with other ways to protect children online, but has not outlined specifically how it intends to do this.
Ms Rayner has demanded answers of the insurgent party which continues to dominate the polls.
She said: “Nigel Farage risks failing a generation of young women with his dangerous and irresponsible plans to scrap online safety laws.
“Scrapping safeguards and having no viable alternative plan in place to halt the floodgates of abuse that could open is an appalling dereliction of duty. It’s time for Farage to tell women and girls across Britain how he would keep them safe online.”