The leader of the Commons has criticised Lancashire police for disclosing private information about the missing woman Nicola Bulley.
Penny Mordaunt said it was “shocking” that the force had made public Bulley’s struggles with alcohol and peri-menopause symptoms. “Serious questions” needed to be asked about why they chose to do so, she added.
Bulley disappeared on 27 January after dropping off her children at school in St Michael’s on Wyre. Lancashire police continue to believe the most likely scenario is that she fell into the river.
Talking to BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Mordaunt said: “It’s quite shocking. And I think that both the prime minister and the home secretary are right to raise concerns about this.
“The first thing I felt was for her family. It’s bad enough having had your loved one go missing, but to have had all the additional drama that’s accompanied this very tragic case is horrific.
“And I think it really does grate with a lot of women and we have to put up with all kinds of sexist behaviour in all kinds of settings. And I think to have it play out in this kind of environment is why people are so upset.”
Asked whether police displayed sexism in their dealing with the case, Mordaunt said: “I think that they clearly were motivated to try and explain why this case is a complex one. But I think there are serious questions to be asked about why they wanted to reveal particular information.”
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, appearing on the same programme, said there was a problem with the way police dealt with misogyny.
Asked about the Bulley case, the Labour frontbencher said she had received “further information” from Lancashire police after raising concerns about the level of detail released by the force about the missing woman.
Cooper did not expand on the information and said the focus should now be on the investigation and the review launched by the information commissioner.
“I am very worried about the nature of the social media speculation and frenzy that there has been around this case … My concern as well is that we focus on that [the information from Lancashire police] at the expense of the focusing on the search for Nicola, which has to be the priority,” she said.
Asked whether there was a broader issue in how police viewed women and whether women could trust forces with “deeply personal” information, Cooper said: “I think we should almost sort of put this case aside … There is a wider issue about the way in which the police has dealt with, particularly, violence against women and girls, and of course with standards around misogyny and around approaches towards violence and abuse within police forces themselves.
“We’ve obviously had the terrible cases of Wayne Couzens and David Carrick, neither of whom should have been police officers, and where really standards have not been high enough.”
Last week, Bulley’s family said they knew in advance that Lancashire police planned to release details about her health.
“Although we know that Nikki would not have wanted this, there are people out there speculating and threatening to sell stories about her. This is appalling and needs to stop,” they said, adding: “The public focus has to be on finding her and not making up wild theories about her personal life.”
