The “some bad apples” defence deployed by Kwasi Kwarteng in response to concerns about sexism and harassment in Westminster is a tried and tested retort to accusations of an institutional problem – but one that history tells us does not always end well. In some ways it is the most obvious response, one that seeks both to defend the institution under attack and reassure people the problem is not systemic. However, as the business secretary quickly discovered this weekend, it also runs the risk of being perceived as tone deaf and rooted in denial. The defence would be more convincing if Neil Parish watching porn in the Commons, and accusations from Conservative MPs that Angela Rayner crossed and uncrossed her legs to distract Boris Johnson, were outliers – but they are not. Almost every female MP has a story of sexism or harassment, not to mention interns and researchers whose position is even more precarious with respect to the power imbalance they face. Previous examples to have hit the headlines include the defence secretary, Michael Fallon, being forced out of office after the journalist Jane Merrick said he had tried to kiss her, and the first secretary of state, Damian Green, losing his job after admitting lying about pornography found on his parliamentary computer during a police investigation. Green’s admission came in a Cabinet Office inquiry investigating claims of inappropriate behaviour against him made by the Tory activist Kate Maltby. There was also David Cameron telling Labour’s Angela Eagle to “calm down dear”. Before Kwarteng made his remarks, it might have been instructive to recall how the same defence worked out for the then Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, when she employed it – albeit replacing “bad apple” with “bad ‘un” – on the same day that one of her officers, PC Wayne Couzens, admitted the kidnapping and rape of Sarah Everard.
The murder of Everard was seen by many as an extreme manifestation of a misogynistic culture within the Met, taking in everything from individual officers’ conduct to the handling of sexual and domestic abuse claims. Dick’s authority never recovered from the fallout. Another nadir came in February when an official report revealed details of officers at Charing Cross station in central London sharing messages about hitting and raping women. The Independent Office for Police Conduct was explicit that “these incidents are not isolated or simply the behaviour of a few ‘bad apples’”. Barely a week seems to go by without another report of alleged misogyny or harassment within the Met, and Westminster can now expect similar scrutiny. It has already begun with the news that more than 50 MPs have been reported to the new independent complaints and grievance scheme. Given Dick’s example, and the threat of more revelations about misogyny and harassment in Westminster and beyond, Kwarteng’s defence may seem reckless but it also speaks to the Conservative playbook – part of the “war on woke”, framing discrimination as the work of individual “bad apples” rather than a systemic problem. The alleged architect of the war on woke, Johnson’s former chief adviser, Munira Mirza, together with the likes of the equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, rejected the notion of institutional racism – a viewpoint enshrined in the much-criticised Sewell report. But it is not limited to race. The minister for women and equalities, Liz Truss, announced a shift in government equality priorities away from gender as well as race. While Johnson expressed outrage over the Rayner story and Parish’s behaviour, until his government is prepared to accept the existence of institutional misogyny and tackle it, the risk is that they will be interpreted as empty words.