This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A Tory MP has spoken at a men’s rights conference hosted by an anti-feminism party, telling the audience that “feminist zealots really do want women to have their cake and eat it”.

Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley, delivered a 45-minute speech at the International Conference on Men’s Issues, organised by the Justice for Men and Boys party (J4MB).

Davies, who sits on the Commons justice committee, told the conference at the ExCel centre in London that Britain’s justice system was skewed in favour of women and discriminated against men.

J4MB states on its website that it intends to target the 20 most marginal Conservative constituencies in the next general election and has the income to fund its candidates’ £500 deposits.

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Davies, a pro-Brexit campaigner who backed Andrea Leadsom for the Tory leadership, appeared alongside anti-feminist bloggers who have likened the activist Malala Yousafzai to Osama bin Laden and called single mothers “bona fide idiots”.

He told the Guardian he did not believe his appearance at an event hosted by J4MB meant he subscribed to what the party stood for, adding: “I don’t think any of my colleagues will ever feel threatened by the political party concerned.”

J4MB is led and was founded by Mike Buchanan, a former business consultant who retired at 52 and launched campaigns such as the Anti-Feminism League and the Campaign for Merit in Business, which actively fights against initiatives to improve gender diversity in the boardroom.

After thanking Buchanan at the conference, Davies delivered a speech on “the justice gender gap”, arguing that the British justice system favoured women and discriminated against men.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Davies speaks during a debate in Westminster Hall in 2015, where he said militant feminists and politically correct men were stirring up non-existent issues between men and women. Photograph: PA

“In this day and age the feminist zealots really do want women to have their cake and eat it,” he told the conference. “They fight for their version of equality on all the things that suit women – but are very quick to point out that women need special protections and treatment on other things.”

J4MB issues awards for “lying feminist of the month”, “toxic feminist of the month” and “whiny feminist of the month”, and promotes inflammatory articles on its website including a piece titled 13 reasons women lie about being raped.

The party pushes for a greater number of male teachers in schools because they claim female teachers habitually award lower grades to boys than to girls.

Its 80-page 2015 election manifesto suggested women should stop being appointed as senior company directors, that the Equality Act 2010 should be scrapped and that men should claim their pensions before women because they work harder and die younger.

Davies has voted against equalities legislation, argued against equality targets in the workplace and once tabled a private member’s bill that would have repealed the Sex Discrimination Act 2002.

He once claimed that men struggled to be heard in parliament, a view for which he was publicly criticised by the Labour MP Jess Phillips.

Davies told the conference: “I don’t believe there’s an issue between men and women. The problem is being stirred up by those who can be described as militant feminists and the politically correct males who pander to this nonsense.

“It seems to me that this has led to an ‘equality but only when it suits’ agenda that applies to women. The drive for women to have so-called equality on all the things that suit the politically correct agenda but not other things that don’t is of increasing concern to me.

“For example, we hear plenty about increasing the numbers of women on company boards and female representation in parliament; however, there’s a deafening silence when it comes to increasing the number of men who have custody of their children or who have careers as midwives. In fact, generally there seems to be a deafening silence on all the benefits women have compared to men.”

Davies raises the issue of prison uniforms being compulsory for men but not for women, a policy he has raised in parliament in the past.

“Men and women are different, it’s a fact,” he said. “Yet this is not allowed to be a reason to prevent equality in the fields where men are better on the whole – for example, when it comes to jobs that require great strength. Ah no, that would be sexist.

“A woman must have equality and do whatever she wants, except, when it comes to wearing a prison uniform, obviously.”

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In one section of his speech, which was delivered in July and appeared on Buchanan’s YouTube page two weeks ago, he suggested women were treated more favourably in the family courts, which often deal with child custody.

He said: “Many women use their children as a stick to beat the father with, either because they’re bitter about the failed relationship, for financial reasons, or because they’ve moved on and it’s easier for them if their new partner takes on the role of father to their children.”

Davies appeared alongside controversial figures including Herbert Purdy, an anti-feminist blogger who has written posts such as “The exquisite beauty of patriarchy”, and who argues that Yousafzai could be more dangerous than Bin Laden.

Janet Bloomfield, a supporter of Women Against Feminism – a social media campaign featuring photos of women with pieces of paper listing reasons for rejecting feminism – also addressed the conference. She has called single mothers “bona fide idiots” who don’t care about their children’s wellbeing, and writes blogposts with titles such as “Why Don’t We Have a Dumb Fucking Whore Registry? Now That Would Be Justice”. She has dismissed the concept of “rape culture” as “a giant rape fantasy”.

Davies told the Guardian: “I don’t accept the premise that the only place people can speak on anything is a place where they agree with everything that organisation stands for.

“I don’t agree with everything the Conservative party does but I’m still a Conservative MP. I don’t follow the logic that if you speak at something, it follows you therefore agree with everything it does. I’m not sure anybody subscribes to that in their life.”

Asked about specific pledges in the J4MB manifesto, Davies said: “If you’ve got any points about what they stand for, my point is take them up with them.”

Asked about J4MB’s plans to target Tory seats, he said: “I don’t think any of my colleagues will ever feel threatened by the political party concerned.”

Davies said he had not been paid for the appearance.