Philip Davies kept his seat, teaching us all a lesson in not counting chickens before they hatch
The Conservative was not ousted from his Shipley constituency.
Conservative MP Philip Davies has retained his Shipley seat, despite online rumours to the contrary leading to a minor Twitterstorm.
Celebrities, politicians and members of the public took to Twitter to share their glee at the apparent news that the Tory MP would not be returning to Parliament.
Even his Wikipedia page was updated to read: Former member of parliament. Oops.
Unfortunately for these tweeters, wishing something was true doesn’t make it so. The confirmation that Davies had been re-elected with a 4,000-vote majority didn’t go down so well.
One journalist even apologised for his role in the misinformation.
Davies has become known for using the parliamentary tool of the filibuster – where someone speaks continually for a long period so a debate runs out of time for a vote – to attempt to halt legislation he disagrees with.
He used this tactic to try to disrupt the vote on the Istanbul Convention, a bill designed to prevent violence against women, saying its focus on women and girls was “discriminatory” against men. Regardless, the bill passed 138 votes to one.
Davies also told a men’s rights conference that “feminist zealots really do want women to have their cake and eat it”, adding: “They fight for their version of equality on all the things that suit women – but are very quick to point out that women need special protections and treatment on other things.”
