Tory MP Philip Davies claims sex education is ‘tyranny’
Tory MP Philip Davies has opposed a bill on statutory sex and relationship education, branding the idea “tyranny”.
Green MP Caroline Lucas today brought a 10-minute-rule bill to Parliament on PSHE, which includes making an inclusive SRE education mandatory in all schools.
However Mr Davies, the MP for Shipley in West Yorkshire, spoke against the motion – claiming it would be “tyranny”, and that sex education does not work.
Speaking in the Commons, he said: “I believe in parental responsibility… the Honourable Lady [Ms Lucas] said that 85 percent of parents agree with this particular measure.
“I’m surprised that she of all people is the one who’s advocating the tyranny of the majority over a small minority.
“I thought she would be the person who thought the 15 percent who didn’t agree deserve to be represented and have their views heard. Clearly she now believes in the tyranny of the majority.”
He added: “There are certain things that are the responsibility of parents, and parents alone, and cannot be farmed off to the state.”
“I oppose this bill in principle… those parents who don’t want the values of the teacher inflicted upon them when they may not be against the values of the parent, should be supported by this parliament in being able to remove their children from those lessons.”
“I oppose it in practice too because I don’t think it makes a blind bit of difference… we’ve been trying sex education in schools for decades in this country. In those times, teenage pregnancy levels have gone up, they’ve gone down, they’ve gone up again, they’ve gone down again. STDs have gone up and up even more…”
Laying in to “sex education fanatics”, he claimed: “There’s no actual evidence this makes any difference whatsoever.”
He also claimed that benefits reform would do more to lower the teenage pregnancy rate than “faffing about” with educating teenagers about sex. Mr Davies also appeared to suggest that sex education was to blame for teenage rape.
Mr Davies is a regular voter against LGBT rights laws, and strongly opposed same-sex marriage.
