Almost every lip reader consulted by politicians and journalists this afternoon agrees that Jeremy Corbyn called Theresa May a ‘stupid woman’ under his breath at PMQs.
The Labour leader’s comments sparked a huge row in the Commons with Tory MPs demanding Mr Corbyn return to Parliament to apologise.
One expert quoted agrees with Mr Corbyn’s version – that he said ‘stupid people’ to the Tory benches in general rather than ‘stupid woman’ to Mrs May.
But that opinion was outvoted by the lipreaders who said – judging by the shape of his mouth – they thought Mr Corbyn said ‘woman’.
His denial has sparked further outrage, including from Piers Morgan, who has asked why anyone should trust a further word out of the Labour leader’s mouth if he is happy to deny something ‘we can all see he did’.
Mr Corbyn, seated during PMQs, can be seen on camera muttering a response to Theresa May which looks like ‘stupid woman’. The Labour leader says he says ‘stupid people’ in reference to Tory MPs
Lip reading experts consulted by the Daily Mail reviewed the footage frame by frame to conclude Mr Corbyn’s mouth movements clearly spelled out W-O-M-A-N, not ‘people’
For the prosecution:
- Famous deaf percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, who can read lips, is quoted by BBC Radio, The Sun, the Mirror, the Express, the Guardian, the Times, and in our own report for MailOnline she was ‘very certain’ he had said woman.
- Her comments came via Tim Johns, who produces the Jeremy Vine show on BBC radio, and who tweeted: ‘I just showed Evelyn Glennie, the famous percussionist, the footage of Jeremy Corbyn in the Commons. She’s deaf and can lip read. She wasn’t aware of the story and her interpretation of what he said was ‘stupid woman’. She says she’s very certain.’
- Sky News reports the consensus of a ‘team’ of lip readers contradicted Labour’s denials, and that Mr Corbyn did indeed call the PM a ‘stupid woman’. Sky says its experts, including former expert witness forensic lip reader Tina Lannin, have concluded the mouth shape for ‘wo’ for woman is unmistakeable.
- Speaker John Bercow said he had consulted ‘lip speakers’ who believed the word was ‘woman’, but he added he himself accepted the Labour leader’s denial.
- West Wing actor Rob Lowe, who is deaf in one ear, also waded into the row, tweeting he had seen Mr Cobryn ‘say it with his own eyes’.
For the defence:
- Forensic lip-reader Jessica Rees told the Mirror: ‘It’s very clear if you lipread him he’s saying ‘stupid people’.’
Speaker Bercow, who has insisted he did not see the incident and has promised to review the footage, found himself in hot water when Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom pointed out he was accused of having said the same thing to her.
Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom raised a point of order to refer to an incident earlier this year where Mr Bercow was accused of calling her a ‘stupid woman’
She raised a point of order to refer to an incident earlier this year where Mr Bercow was accused of calling her a ‘stupid woman’.
She said: ‘If individuals who are found to have made unwelcome remarks should apologise, why it is that when an opposition member found that you had called me a ‘stupid woman’, you did not apologise in this chamber?’
After repeated jeers and banging from Tory MPs, Mr Bercow said the matter had been ‘treated of’ previously.
Tory MPs beseiged the Speaker after the incident offering to show him visual evidence of what Mr Corbyn muttered
After My Corbyn returned to the House of Commons to insist he did not say ‘stupid woman’, but rather, ‘stupid people’, some on Twitter exploded in outrage including journalist Piers Morgan.
He called the Labour leader’s denials a ‘flagrant lie’ and said Mr Corbyn was ‘digging himself an even deeper hole’ by claiming he said ‘stupid people’.
World famous deaf percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, who told a BBC radio producer she was ‘very certain’ Mr Corbyn said ‘stupid woman’, has been quoted by multiple news outlets
In a string of Tweets this afternoon, Daily Mail US editor at large Piers Morgan rounded on the Labour leader for what he insisted was an outright lie
Corbyn hauled back to Commons for ‘stupid woman’ jibe at May amid furious sexism row: Labour leader claims he said ‘stupid people’ despite lip readers (and Rob Lowe) claiming otherwise
Jeremy Corbyn was engulfed in a sexism row yesterday over calling Theresa May a ‘stupid woman’ during bitter clashes at PMQs.
The Labour leader faced a furious backlash from Tories and his own MPs after appearing to mouth the jibe during a stormy Commons session.
In a brutal pre-Christmas exchanges, Mrs May had accused Mr Corbyn of descending into ‘pantomime’ over Brexit, saying even his own party was not behind him.
Jeremy Corbyn flatly denied saying the words ‘stupid woman’ when he was summoned back to the chamber
Mrs May had said Mr Corbyn’s position as descending into ‘pantomime’, and said his own party was not behind him
But as the PM sat down to cheers, Mr Corbyn seemed to mutter: ‘Stupid woman.’
The remark was not picked up on microphones, but politicians from both sides of the House were in little doubt what he said – as were lipreaders.
However, hauled back to the House to explain himself hours later, Mr Corbyn flatly denied uttering the words.
‘I did not use the words “stupid woman” about the Prime Minister or anyone else,’ he said.
MPs were quick to tweet their fury after the claims were made against Mr Corbyn yesterday
Speaker John Bercow said he had consulted ‘lipspeakers’ and they believed Mr Corbyn probably did deliver the slur, but no-one could be ‘100 per cent’ certain.
Bizarrely, Hollywood actor Rob Lowe also waded in to the row, saying he had seen the insult on TV ‘with my own eyes’.
When the slur was raised with her in the chamber, Mrs May retorted that all MPs must refer to women in an ‘appropriate’ way.
As the row caught light again this evening, Mr Bercow told MPs: ‘I have looked at the television footage of the leader of the opposition reacting to the Prime Minister, allegedly saying ‘stupid woman’ to those seated next to him.
‘Having heard the allegation against the leader of the opposition and having watched the footage it is easy to see why the leader of the opposition’s words might be construed as ‘stupid woman’.
‘That was also the opinion of lip speakers – and I emphasis lip speakers rather than lip readers – whose advice was sought and obtained at short notice.’
‘Nobody can be 100 per cent certain, that includes professional lipreaders. But I will naturally take and would be expected to take, the word of any right honourable or honourable member. ‘It’s reasonable to expect the House to do the same.’
But in an extraordinary intervention in the Commons, Tory MP Rachel Maclean responded: ‘Read my lips… I don’t believe him.’
After PMQs ended, the House descended into chaos as Tories demanded an apology.
Tory MP James Cleverly said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn clearly calling @theresamay a ‘stupid women’ at #PMQs today. This kind of misogynistic language must not be tolerated.’
Labour MP Stella Creasy said: ‘This is not ok. PMQs is a hotbed of emotions but I hope that Jeremy will accept this kind of behaviour isn’t his normal good nature or what we expect of progressive men.’
Even shadow trade secretary Barry Gardiner joined criticism of Mr Corbyn.
‘I am not a lipreader, but it certainly seemed that might have been it,’ he told BBC Politics Live.
‘Jeremy is one of the most courteous people in Parliament, he hardly ever uses inappropriate language against anyone.
‘If that is what he said, I am sure he will regret it and apologise.’
Mrs May responded: ‘I think that everybody in this House particularly in the hundreth anniversary of women getting the vote should be encouraging women to come into this chamber… and should therefore use appropriate language.’
Bizarrely, Hollywood actor Rob Lowe – who starred in classic US political drama the West Wing – also waded in, saying he had seen the insult ‘with my own eyes’
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said afterwards: ‘He did not call her a stupid woman and so I don’t think there’s any basis for an apology.
‘As I understand it, he said ‘stupid people’.’
The spokesman said Mr Corbyn was referring generally to MPs who were not taking the issues being debated seriously.’
Supporters of the Labour leader directed a torrent of vile abuse at the party’s MPs who criticised him.
Ms Creasy highlighted a death threat she had received on Twitter, which said she was ‘lower than vermin’ and added: ‘The only good Blairite is a dead one.’
Conservatives also turned their fury on Speaker John Bercow.
Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom raised a point of order to refer to an incident earlier this year where Mr Bercow was accused of calling her a ‘stupid woman’.
‘If individuals who are found to have made unwelcome remarks should apologise, why it is that when an opposition member found that you had called me a ‘stupid woman’, you did not apologise in this chamber?’
After repeated jeers and banging from Tory MPs, Mr Bercow said: ‘No no I’ll deal with the point.
‘I dealt with that point months ago in remarks that I made to the House of Commons to which Ms Leadsom in our various meetings since has made no reference and which requires from the chair today no elaboration whatsoever.’
The Speaker added that ‘the matter has been treated of and I am leaving it there’.
She said when evidence was presented that ‘you had called me a stupid woman you did not apologise in this chamber’.
But former minister Anna Soubry then rose to claim that if the Tory MP had said the same thing to a Labour MP ‘you sir would take action immediately’.
‘With great respect to the chair I have to say this, if it was one of my male colleagues on this side of the House that had used that expression against a woman on the frontbench on the Opposition you sir would take action immediately.
‘Please would you deal with it as you often do, Mr Speaker, in a fair way, but also from the point of view of women in this House who are fed up over decades of being abused by men.’
Mr Bercow, who was being shouted at and heckled by Tory MPs, responded saying: ‘I cannot be expected to deprecate the behaviour of an individual which I did not witness.’