\n<\/p>\n
Nigel Farage is \u201cendangering women\u2019s health\u201d by failing to condemn Donald Trump\u2019s claims that using paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism, Bridget Phillipson has said.<\/p>\n
The education secretary and minister for women said she had used the painkiller throughout her second pregnancy, and she warned that Reform\u2019s connections with medical conspiracy theories including anti-vaccine rhetoric made the party a danger to public health.<\/p>\n
Phillipson is running for Labour deputy leader and has said she wants to use the platform to make a stronger moral argument against Reform, saying Labour needs to \u201cget on the front foot challenging them\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said Farage\u2019s unwillingness to repudiate Trump\u2019s comments on autism and paracetamol was wrong. \u201cI couldn\u2019t have got through my second pregnancy without taking paracetamol, and to scaremonger in that way, and to scare women and put lives at risk, I think is really dangerous,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Reform has also drawn criticism for giving a platform to a cardiologist who suggested the Covid vaccine was linked to King Charles\u2019s cancer. Phillipson said: \u201cVaccinations have saved the lives of millions of people. They\u2019re [Reform] prepared to go to those fringes and we\u2019ve got to be firmer as a party in taking them on.\u201d<\/p>\n
She suggested there had been some frustration that Labour had not come out fighting quickly enough against some of Reform\u2019s controversial announcements over the summer and said that would change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have to be firmer in our approach,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd as deputy leader that\u2019s what I\u2019ll do, because I believe the approach we need to take is where the British people are. I don\u2019t think Reform speak for the vast majority of the British people, who abhor prejudice, intolerance and racism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen the drift both from Reform and the Conservatives into language which is ever more divisive, that involves an othering of people. I think it\u2019s fundamentally irresponsible for elected politicians to behave in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phillipson also said she was unnerved by how Farage and far-right protests were prepared to use women\u2019s safety as an argument against migration. A number of protests over the summer appeared to have women at the forefront outside asylum hotels, including the one in Epping sparked by an incident for which an asylum seeker was later convicted of sexual assault.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever violence against women occurs, there should be the strongest possible response to it,\u201d Phillipson said. \u201cBut what victims don\u2019t need is people seeking to make political opportunism out of their suffering. We need to be clear on calling them out.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Farage\u2019s plan to end indefinite leave to remain, replacing it with rolling visa with a high salary threshold, was another example of a policy that Labour should counter on moral grounds rather than just practicality. \u201cIt would rip families apart, would rip communities apart and is frankly disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phillipson faces a major challenge as education secretary over plans to reform the Send system, including potentially scrapping the system of educational care plans under which costs have spiralled while parents still struggle to access adequate help. MPs are deeply concerned about the changes and there have been warnings of a parliamentary battle ahead.<\/p>\n
Opposition parties have argued the system is being taken advantage of, with questions raised, particularly locally, over the use of school taxis by disabled children.<\/p>\n
Phillipson said she would fiercely resist Send reform becoming a culture war. \u201cIt\u2019s deeply upsetting for lots of parents to hear comments from various Reform characters about how their children are badly behaved or their parenting is poor when all they\u2019re trying to do is provide support to their children who have additional needs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get better at support that\u2019s required in order to allow all children to thrive, and that\u2019s why the system isn\u2019t currently delivering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucy Powell, who is vying with Phillipson for the deputy leadership, issued her own call on Thursday for the party to be more direct in taking on Reform, admitting Labour was struggling with \u201cauthenticity and attention\u201d.<\/p>\n
She wrote in the Guardian: \u201cWe risk losing support by taking progressive voters for granted while failing to articulate a clear and compelling argument to those flirting with Farage that sets out why they would be wrong to put their faith in him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Powell also criticised Farage\u2019s plans on indefinite leave to remain, calling them \u201ca scheme cooked up by a man who is the love child of Margaret Thatcher and Enoch Powell\u201d.<\/p>\n Phillipson\u2019s campaign has been given a boost by the endorsement of two major trade unions, the GMB and Unison. But polls put her significantly behind Powell, the former House of Commons leader, who is standing on a platform more critical of the leadership.<\/p>\n Phillipson, as the only cabinet minister in the race, has been widely seen as the continuity candidate, a characterisation she rejects.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a funny old world to be apparently the establishment candidate, given how much of a kicking I\u2019ve taken from the establishment in recent months,\u201d she said, referring to criticism over her school reforms as well as briefings that she would be moved from education secretary.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone who knows me well knows that I\u2019m my own person. I\u2019m independent-minded, I get things done and I\u2019ll be judged on that basis, not judged through the prism of others,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Powell has said she would give the role her full-time attention and use the platform to be a constructive critic of the government and represent the voices of ordinary members.<\/p>\n Phillipson said it was possible to also continue as a member of the cabinet, which was how the role had traditionally be done. \u201cNo one ever suggested that Angela [Rayner] was a part-timer, or John Prescott or Harriet Harman were part-timers,\u201d she said of past deputy leaders. \u201cThey were effective because they had a seat at the table, not throwing stones in public.\u201d<\/p>\n Phillipson has long been talked of as potential future Labour leader but she declined to say explicitly if she thought Labour\u2019s next leader should be a woman.<\/p>\n Asked if she found it frustrating that Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, was tipped so often as a successor to Keir Starmer, she said: \u201cFemale politicians, and I\u2019m no different, do get a lot of nonsense. I\u2019ve been underestimated most of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nigel Farage is \u201cendangering women\u2019s health\u201d by failing to condemn Donald Trump\u2019s claims that using paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism, Bridget Phillipson has said. The education secretary and minister for women said she had used the painkiller throughout her second pregnancy, and she warned that Reform\u2019s connections with medical conspiracy theories including anti-vaccine rhetoric made<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[2986,1891,9402,9447,7997,3391,3132,134,2378,1789,2651,2987,418],"class_list":{"0":"post-23954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-bridget","9":"tag-claims","10":"tag-condemn","11":"tag-deputy","12":"tag-endangering","13":"tag-failing","14":"tag-farage","15":"tag-labour","16":"tag-leadership","17":"tag-paracetamol","18":"tag-party","19":"tag-phillipson","20":"tag-women"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}