When John Humphrys and Jon Sopel mocked the whole BBC gender pay gap controversy in the wake of Carrie Gracie’s resignation last month, they weren’t really held to account. There was no great show of remorse from them. The BBC could have taken them off air for a couple of days to underline that they were unimpressed with their behaviour. They and their sense of entitlement were pretty much left untouched.

Until today.

Jo Swinson was interviewed by John Humphrys about the new procedures to tackle sexual harassment and bullying in Parliament. At the end of the interview, this happened:

Listen as @joswinson confronts John Humphrys live on-air about his disparaging equal pay jokes & just not getting sexual harassment. pic.twitter.com/hmRLNOHBNF

— Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) February 8, 2018

Humphrys was a bit sniffy about it all. He said he’d sent her an email immediately afterwards but that Jo’s question was irrelevant. The interview was, generally, about dealing with (mostly) men’s bad behaviour towards (mostly but not entirely) women. It was entirely appropriate to raise a specific example of a man’s bad behaviour towards a woman.

Men so rarely are put in a position where they have to answer for their sexist behaviour. We should all be bolder, I think, in ensuring that they do. Women across the country will have applauded Jo for her acton today. Let’s follow her example and call out sexist behaviour as and when we see it, whether it’s happening to ourselves or to someone else.

It doesn’t have to be in front of millions of radio listeners. Back in the day, there was a man at a regular meeting I went to who would interrupt me every single time I opened my mouth to speak. It was really starting to annoy me. I had a very courteous, quiet word with him after a meeting and he was quite shocked. He actually hadn’t realised that he was doing it. He never did it again, though, and my relationship with him improved dramatically as a result.

As an aside, who thinks that sending an email is an acceptable form of atonement in a situation like Humphrys’ and Sopel’s conversation?. If you have been caught out demeaning someone, the very least you can do is offer a sincere apology in person or on the phone.

Jo was complimented widely on Twitter:

If you make your name being a fearless inquisitor, you have to be able to take the occasional fearless inquisition yourself. Bravo to @joswinson putting John Humphrys on the spot on #r4today

— Jane Merrick (@janemerrick23) February 8, 2018

Great for the Lib Dems that they now have a young female leader who says interesting things, makes news, and reminds people the party exists. https://t.co/0pk9CRWp8N

— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) February 8, 2018

Well done @joswinson https://t.co/cFUlE5MyMc

— Jess Phillips (@jessphillips) February 8, 2018

You can listen to Jo’s whole interview here from about 2 hours 13 in.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social