Tracy Brabin has had the last laugh after shoulder-gate – and I’m laughing along with her

The Labour MP dared to expose the bit of your body that attaches your arms to your neck. But a lot of people reacted as if she had turned up in parliament topless, writes Jenny Eclair

The infamous dress has been put up for auction on eBay and has reached bids of over £17,000 (PA)

Tracy Brabin is having the last laugh after last week’s shoulder-gate. For those who have been living in a cave: Brabin, a remarkably youthful 58-year-old and the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, hobbled into parliament last Monday on a plaster-cast leg to speak passionately about No 10’s selective press briefings. Earlier in the day, the shadow culture secretary had attended a music event (for work) and quite correctly worn something with a tiny bit of edge to it: an off-the-shoulder dress costing a princely £35 from Asos (incidentally, the dress has now entirely sold out and if Asos has any sense, they’ll sign Brabin up for their next ad campaign). As Brabin’s injured ankle forced her to lean heavily on the despatch box, her frock seemed to slip a little lower than she’d anticipated, revealing even more of that filthiest part of women’s bodies – the shoulder – and Twitter mayhem ensued.

Suddenly, the woman who had taken over the murdered Jo Cox’s constituency was facing a tirade of sexist abuse, with users saying she looked like a “slag”. Actually, she looked like a woman in very good nick wearing a dress (personally I just wondered what kind of strapless bra she was wearing, and whether it was comfortable). Remember: Brabin had exposed the bit of your body that attaches your arms to your neck. But a lot of people reacted as if she had turned up topless.

Obviously had she been a Conservative MP, Brabin would have no doubt had a handy cashmere pashmina on hand and modestly draped herself in it, but she didn’t, because she was an MP who had dressed for one gig and ended up doing another; and anyway, it wasn’t as if a bosom had fallen out and you certainly couldn’t see her knickers.

All that said, if I’m being totally honest, there was a bit of me that thought the dress was unwise – if only because it detracted from the important message its wearer was delivering. Brabin’s brave speech about the government choosing which journalists they grant access to was all but drowned out by this nasty tide of vitriol about a few inches of skin. Why can’t we listen to women, instead of focusing on what they are wearing? Was a black off-the-shoulder frock really more disrespectful to the house than Jacob Rees-Mogg lounging across the benches in his usual freaky Victorian taxidermist’s get-up?

What is it that gives the public such license to comment on how women dress? If we’re not wearing enough, we’re wearing too much, if we don’t look slaggy, we look frumpy.

To my shame, I must admit I’m guilty of this kind of odious behaviour myself. Having recently binged on Netflix’s fabulous new show Next in Fashion, charmingly presented by Alexa Chung and Tan France, I found myself frequently criticising Chung’s choice of outfit, describing a sludge-green dress as a “stagnating pond”.

Conversely, I sometimes watch Naga Munchetty on BBC Breakfast and zone out on the conversation whilst wondering: where did she get her fabulous blouse from?

The fact is that women are under a great deal more scrutiny over what they wear than men. When the beanie-hatted Dominic Cummings entered No 10 with his jeans slung so low you could see his bum crack, I don’t remember the incident being raised on Question Time. How is Cummings allowed to get away with constantly looking like he could nick the lead off of your roof, whilst Brabin gets a week’s worth of abuse for showing her shoulder?

Not that Brabin is going to let it get to her. The former writer and actress, complete with a stint on the Coronation Street cobblestones, is no push-over. Instead of hiding under polo necks until the storm passes, Brabin has stood firm, even auctioning her now-infamous dress on eBay. Currently the bidding stands at over £17,000, but with several days to go, the £35 internet sensation could fetch a substantial sum for Brabin’s chosen charity, Girlguiding UK, which helps girls across the country build the confidence to become leaders – leaders able to wear whatever the hell they like.