Laws to make public sexual harassment a crime are being blocked at the top of government, an independent advisor warned today.
Home Office plans last year could have made wolf-whistling and catcalling a criminal offence, and passed new specific laws on the most severe acts of street harassment too.
But the plan has barely been mentioned for six months - after Boris Johnson complained making new crimes would “increase the problems” for police.
Now Nimco Ali, the Home Office’s advisor on violence against women and girls and a close friend of the PM’s wife Carrie, has warned there is “pushback” against the idea.
Asked if Mr Johnson’s advisors were to blame, she told the BBC ’s Nick Robinson “I think it’s a lot closer than that” and “you can take from my silence, you know, however you want to put”.
She later denied blaming Boris Johnson directly but told a podcast: “There is at times a very masculine conversation where the government and how government and institutions work.
“So we need to be able to address that."
Last July, Home Secretary Priti Patel said she would look at “gaps in existing law” to see if more can be done to ensure women are “confident their concerns will be taken seriously”.
Government sources did not rule out extending new laws to wolf-whistling and catcalls, though no decisions had been made.
But Boris Johnson appeared to kill off the plans in October, when he said: “I think what we should do is prosecute people for the crimes we have on the statute book.
“That is what I am focused on. To be perfectly frank, if you widen the scope of what you ask the police to do, you will just increase the problems."
Reports later claimed Home Secretary Priti Patel was infuriated at the move being blocked.
One source told the Observer at the time: “Make no mistake, Boris Johnson is the person blocking and holding this back. He seems to be stuck in the past on this issue.”
Another stressed that the powers would have gone far further than wolf whistles and catcalls.
Ms Ali told Political Thinking with Nick Robinson “a lot of people” had come to a different conclusion to the Home Secretary.
"For me, I would specifically love (for) public sexual harassment to become a crime,” she said. "One of the things that I've seen is that a department and a Secretary of State can have an opinion and then there can be other things (where there is) pushback," she said, before clarifying the pushback came from "other people".
Mr Robinson asked: “When you say a lot of people, hold on, you're the government’s adviser, you’ve got the backing of the home secretary, I’m trying to work out why it doesn’t happen.
“Is it because people at the top of the government, is it those people in No10 who advise the prime minister saying, I'm not sure I'd have this argument if I were you?”
She replied: “Well, I'm still going to have the argument. So the whole point, I think that's my key thing about being an independent advisor.
“I think that we are actually corroding society and we are allowing young women to be subjected to lived experiences which are going to like, you know, have a massive detriment to their health on a day to day basis.”
Mr Robinson pressed on: “What I'm trying to get at, though, is it the kind of political advisors, is it the people who try to win elections for the Tory Party going don't have this row, this isn’t a row you want to have, this doesn’t win votes?”
Ms Ali replied: “I think it’s a lot closer than that.
“So obviously I've become somewhat au fait with how to avoid the question so that's like you know, to that point, so you can take from my silence, you know, however you want to put.
“But I can say that the Home Secretary and other people within the Home Office are very much behind it.”
After the wide-ranging podcast was published Ms Ali told Mr Robinson on Twitter : “I did not blame him for this.
“Honestly I talked about almost dying from FGM and wanting a better world for girls and this is what you go with.”
The strategy last July came after a public consultation taking in evidence from 180,000 people, the vast majority during a two-week period following the murder of Sarah Everard.
It also vowed to look at whether street design features could help improve personal safety in public, while it will also pilot an online tool called StreetSafe, allowing members of the public to anonymously highlight locations where they feel particularly vulnerable.
And it contained measures including a public campaign "focused on creating behavioural change" which the Government hopes will challenge misogyny in society, as well as pledges to ensure police know how to effectively respond to allegations.
At the time, Ms Patel said: "The safety of women and girls across the country, wherever they are, is an absolute priority for me.
"It is unacceptable that women and girls are still subject to harassment, abuse, and violence, and I do not accept that violence against women and girls is inevitable.”
Downing Street today insisted tackling violence against women and girls “remains a top priority for this government” and a law on public harassment was not ruled out.
The PM’s deputy official spokesman said: “We will continue to look at where there may be gaps and how a specific offence could address those”.
