ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Abuse survivors and women’s rights activists turned their backs in protest on MP Philip Davies in the House of Commons, as he tried to block a bill to end violence against women.

During a debate on the Istanbul Convention, a legal framework to tackle violence against women and girls, the Conservative MP said he was opposing the law because it was “discriminatory and sexist”.

Women watching the debate from the public gallery turned their backs on the MP as he spoke for 78 minutes arguing that the law was hypocritical because men are also victims of domestic violence and were treated more harshly in the criminal justice system.

He told the House of Commons: “I am against it because we should have a convention that deals with all violence, violence against men and women.

“I of course oppose violence against women, but I also oppose violence against men and boys and having a strategy for one and not the other is just not acceptable to me.

“Surely we should just want to eliminate all discrimination full stop.”

He added: “I oppose this bill because it introduces unnecessarily meddling from super national bodies that we can quite do without and we can do on our own.

Adding that the bill “flies in the face of everything we’re supposed to believe in if we believe in true equality.”

His comments sparked outrage among female MPs and activists with Labour MP Jess Phillips questioning whether Mr Davies had any interest in improving things for victims of domestic violence.

Another MP, Gavin Newland, was incredulous that Mr Davies was “even from the same species.”

The SNP politician said: "It’s disappointing that Philip Davies thought that he could filibuster this life-saving bill.

“In the 78 minutes that he spoke, 78 women will have called the police to report abuse at the hands of their partner."

Labour MP Thangham Debbonaire accused Mr Davies of “wilfully misrepresenting the convention” adding “the safety of women and children is too important not to ratify this.”

Ms Debbonaire acknowledged the importance of protecting men and boys from domestic violence but said “when you remain neutral in a circumstance of inequality you side with the powerful against the powerless.”

Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality Party, tweeted her dismay over Mr Davie’s opposition to the bill.

She posted: “If anyone was in any doubt of need of #ICBill to counter sexism and misogyny in UK then Philip Davies’ speech is all proof needed. Thanks PD!”

The Government signed up to the Istanbul Convention in 2012 but the legislation has not been ratified into UK law.

SNP MP Eilidh Whiteford, who put forward the Private Members Bill, opened the debate saying she believes “very passionately that we can end violence against women”.

At the end of the debate the headcount was 135 MPs in favour of approving the legislation while only two, Mr Davies and Conservative MP David Nuttall, voted against the bill.

One in five women has experienced sexual violence since the age of 16 and around 85,000 women are raped every year in England and Wales, according to the Office on National Statistics.

On average one in four women has experienced domestic abuse and two women are killed every week by a current or former partner, according to Women’s Aid.

Mr Davies, who once claimed that “feminist zealots really do want women to have their cake and eat it,” caused controversy this week when he was elected to the women and equalities committee.