Jacob Rees-Mogg, if you think men shouldn't touch women's knees, then get your hands off our ovaries

The hypocrisy of the Conservatives to now claim that they’re on the side of women’s rights is offensive beyond belief

Rees-Mogg is the man who argues that abortion should be banned in all circumstances (Getty)

No one should have to wake up to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s grating voice. But there he was at 8am blaring into my ear about how, “generally speaking”, he thinks that “relations between men and women should be on a well-mannered polite basis” and men “have no business going round and putting their hands on ladies’ knees”, because that’s “not the way to behave”.

Let’s get this straight. Touching a woman’s body without consent isn’t bad manners, it’s harassment, and Michael Fallon did not resign as Defence Secretary because he thought his actions were impolite, but because the Tories fear that this is just the first in a likely spate of similar allegations.

And while this seems to be an endemic cross-party issue in Westminster, the hypocrisy of the Conservatives to now claim that they’re on the side of women’s rights is offensive beyond belief.

Remember, Rees-Mogg is the man who argues that abortion should be banned in all circumstances, and women who have an abortion after being raped are committing a “second wrong”. Good to know that should he become Tory leader we’d have a Prime Minister who thinks we’re entitled to autonomy over our knees but not our wombs.

And it’s not just everyone’s favourite reactionary Tory minister. A bunch of them are crawling out of the woodwork, spewing unbelievable rhetoric in the hopes of tricking us into thinking this is anything but a party committed to maintaining a status quo which devalues women’s rights and fights against our efforts towards equality.

Ruth Davidson, head of the Scottish Conservatives and Tory MP Anna Soubry are both speaking up about how this culture of male entitlement needs to stop. Yet they would do well to remember that they’re speaking on behalf of a party whose cuts to welfare and legal aid, alongside a lack of protection for workers, make it incredibly difficult for women not in a position of privilege to report and challenge workplace harassment.

While ministers may well speak out in defence of Julia Hartley-Brewer, the journalist whose knee was touched by Fallon, they show no interest in supporting women who aren’t white, middle-class, straight, British and able bodied.

This is a Government headed up by a woman who as Home Secretary wanted to deport a Nigerian lesbian refugee because she had children and therefore must be lying about her sexuality; who refused to reveal whether women in Yarl’s Wood have been raped in case it “damaged the commercial interests” of companies. The cruel austerity cuts introduced by the Tories have disproportionately affected women, who bear a shocking 86 per cent of the impact – something they show no sign of addressing.

Theresa May refused to vote on the issues of decriminalisation of abortion up to 24 weeks, equal pay transparency, and the Istanbul convention which seeks to tackle domestic violence. The decision to limit child benefits to only two children per family is cruel and regressive in and of itself, clearly affecting low-income mothers over any other demographic, but the shocking “rape clause” is egregious beyond belief, proving May’s Government has no concept of the realities and nuances of sexual assault.

Further evidence of the intense empathy gap of the Tories is in Fallon’s own statements. He speaks of his behaviour falling “below the high standards we require” – I think most women would argue that not touching us without our consent is not a high standard at all, but the very minimum we should require of all people. He implies that such behaviour would have been acceptable “10 or 15 years ago”, but workplace sexual harassment has never been acceptable to victims of it, just to the perpetrators and enablers.

The Conservative party has always been run by and for the most privileged members of society. Sure, every four or five years the Tories try to manipulate the electorate into thinking they’re interested in benefiting people beyond the richest, but their record speaks for itself. They have no interest in supporting and promoting the rights of women, especially those who don’t look and sound like Theresa May.

Michael Fallon was right to resign, but if his actions towards Hartley-Brewer are cause enough, then surely the entire party should admit its role in suppressing women’s rights and resign with him.