Last Saturday, professional pool player Lynne Pinches found the voice that had been taken away by an “anti-fascist” mob. Standing on a street in Norwich city centre, she described how her career ended when World Eightball Pool Federation (WEPF) announced that men would be allowed to self-identify into the women’s category. The previous month, when she planned to speak about her experience at a public demonstration, she was faced with a mob of 300 counter protesters, including her own member of parliament, Clive Lewis.

The Labour politician faced Pinches and the group she was in and bellowed “fight the fascists” into a megaphone. The crowd behind him, many of whom had been made aware of the event thanks to Lewis’s social media posts calling the women’s rights protest “fascist and transphobic”, erupted. Having been hounded by trans rights activists for months, including enduring threats against her family, Lynne was terrified. Cowed into silence she reflects: “I was so anxious because of that and all the men in masks that day that I didn’t talk on the microphone.”

But she was determined to counter the smear that supporters of women’s rights are secret blackshirts, and to challenge the prejudice of her elected representative.

Last week Lynne joined over four hundred people, mostly women, at a mass lobby of parliament organised by Sex Matters. The purpose was to give personal testimonies about the harm done from opening-up women’s spaces, services and sports to men who claim to be transwomen. The event attracted people from across the political spectrum, all were united in their view that sex matters, and that it cannot be changed. While many MPs agreed to meetings, Lewis appeared a little reluctant. 

Lynne says she was told by Lewis’ constituency office that he was unavailable and wouldn’t be in parliament. As such, she was somewhat surprised when she spotted him in Westminster Hall. When she stopped to talk to him, she says Lewis told her she was “a bad faith actor”. This was apparently because Students Against Tyranny (SAT) who organised the events in Norwich where Lynne was given an opportunity to speak had protested outside a hotel used to house migrants. (This followed a claim that one of the residents had been charged with raping a woman in a nearby underpass.)

Lewis’ office confirmed that the pair had met, explaining, “Ms Pinches was accurately told by Mr Lewis’ office that he was not available for a meeting due to pre-existing commitments when she first got in touch. Clive was escorting a constituent around Parliament at the time, but chose to make a detour to briefly speak to Ms Pinches and another constituent when he was made aware of their location via the ‘green card’ system.”

Lynne says he was far from welcoming and “looked stunned” when she introduced herself.

“At the very start of our conversation Clive Lewis told me it would be difficult to converse if I was involved with Students Against Tyranny as it’s been infiltrated by far right fascists.”

Lynne told him about her experience within the sport of pool, explaining that she has a trans friend with whom she practises because the issue of mixed sex competition “is clearly not a trans issue, it’s a fairness issue.”

“He agreed that rugby and football should be single sex, but then also said that ‘trans women are women’…Which makes no sense if he thinks they shouldn’t play rugby or football with women.”

It is hard to escape the feeling that for Lewis, and indeed many others on the left of the Labour Party, politics is a matter of contagion

Lewis’ blind spot is unsurprising. Last year he signed a letter “in solidarity” with a man who publicly fed his baby with drug induced discharge from his nipples. When questioned on social media about supporting something which might harm a child, Lewis responded: “Look at the timelines of many of the people backing you up on this issue. Anti-migrant, anti-climate, hard right.  It’s pretty revealing and should give you pause for thought.”

It is hard to escape the feeling that for Lewis, and indeed many others on the left of the Labour Party, politics is a matter of contagion. This might be forgivable at the sixth form common room, but it is a shocking stance for an elected politician whose job is not simply to lead, but to listen.

Were one to apply the law of guilt by association to Lewis he could equally be accused of being a misogynist, homophobic bully. He has been vocal in opposing Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip. Does this make him a Hamas supporter? Does this mean he condones the treatment of women and LGB people under Sharia law? Many of those drawn to the Palestinian cause are Islamists, so by Lewis’ logic — and not by mine — this would tar him with the brush of theocratic fascism.

The protest Lynne spoke at was called to raise awareness about the loss of single-sex facilities at University of East Anglia. Whether or not one agrees with the wider views of SAT, the issue raised is live and has a clear impact on those within Lewis’ constituency. As with concerns over immigration, if women’s rights have been co-opted by those on the right, that is surely only because of the failure of too many politicians on the left to address the matter without resorting to the tired and infantile slurs of student politics.

Lynne has not only lost her career, she has endured months of harassment and threats for daring to tell her story. Sadly, her story is far from unusual. To berate her for accepting the only platform offered is to miss the point. Fascism is a heavy and ugly ideology; intimidating and shaming women into silence is a step towards it.