Lizzy Vaid, the ‘poster girl’ for Ukip who turned out to be the party’s events manager and Farage’s aid, has become the latest victim to a horrific case of revenge porn. The images sent to the Sun were described as “too graphic to reproduce — or even describe” in online or print. Yet so far the event seems to be relatively ignored by the media, primarily by the left wing press.

Vaid stated the images were sent to the tabloid by her ex-boyfriend and has subsequently deleted all of her social media profiles. The Met Police have confirmed they were investigating whether any crime had taken place. Neither the Independent, Guardian nor the New Statesman, which are all renowned as left-wing publications who vehemently oppose revenge porn, have responded to the case. A search for “revenge porn” brings back 35 related articles on the Independent and 77 on the New Statesman, with articles involving to the rise of issue and the need for it to be addressed in public. However there is no mention of Lizzy Vaid despite the story breaking over 5 days ago.

When asked why she thought the left wing press hasn’t reported to the incident Laurie Penny feminist, staunch activist against revenge porn and writer for the New Statesman and Guardian said “haven’t they? I’ve tweeted about it. Personally I feel a bit weird about it because I went to school with Lizzy Vaid and haven’t spoken to her since, but I do firmly believe that all ‘revenge porn’ must be opposed.” Yet both of the publications she writes for is yet to comment.

The Telegraph, a centre-right publication, published an article on 24th April acknowledging the case and the Spectator posted a blog yesterday directly calling the event an act of revenge porn. The blog also recognised the distinct silence from the left-wing press on the matter. In the US some states have published laws aimed at stopping revenge porn and UK campaigners such as National Stalking Helpline, Women’s Aid and the UK Safer Internet Centre have called for similar laws to be implemented here. A petition started by a York University student to ban revenge porn in the UK currently has 3,000 signatures, if it reaches 100,000 law states it must be debated in the House of Commons.

Women are still extremely under-represented in Westminster at just 22% of MPs being female and Britain being ranked 57th in the world for gender equality in parliament, falling behind countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Tunisia. Whatever her political preferences may be, like them or not, Vaid was a woman making an impact in politics on some level and it is very disheartening to think this may now signal her demise. Revenge porn against anyone, male, female, left-wing or right should be vehemently opposed and called out in the media in order to curb its rise. It’s a shame to see political leanings and party hatred put before publicly condemning this event by all sides of the media.