Priti Patel miffed with UK PM Boris Johnson squashing sexual harassment law: Report

Reports of tension between UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel have been making news since the former overruled Patel's attempt to make public sexual harassment a crime. According to the Guardian, the differences arose after Johnson refused to support new laws on violence against women claiming they are "abundant."

Johnson's statement created a block on Patel's public call for evidence to inform it's a new strategy (published in July) for tackling violence against women. This will include all sorts of behaviour that could make women uncomfortable in public spaces. The evidence contributions dropped in from over 1,80,000 people, which came majorly after the murders of Sarah Everard in March and Sabina Nessa in September. Many complaints also claimed of being harassed daily.

Speaking to The Guardian under conditions of anonymity, a source from the UK Home Office said that the PM had "totally misjudged" the sentiments of people. "Trying to bring it down to wolf-whistling is massively problematic. But we are going to make this happen. People are prepared to put the political capital behind this, and the home secretary is among those very much behind it," the source said. Another source close to the PM Office asserted, "(Johnson) seems to be stuck in the past on this issue" adding that the PM "did not seem to understand the issue."

"Make no mistake, Boris Johnson is the person blocking and holding this back," the anonymous source told The Guardian.

More than half of London women suffer harassment in public transport

Recently, there have been multiple cases of sexual harassment against women, both on the streets and inside pubs or during concerts. According to a survey conducted by YouGov earlier this year more than half of women in London have suffered sexual harassment in public transport. More than one-third of the respondents complained of being pressed against by a stranger in buses or metros. Surprisingly, tens and thousands of such incidents went unreported since they were not taken seriously by police due to the lack of specifics of the offense under the law.

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