Parliamentary reporter @TrinderMatt

THE public supports classifying misogyny as a hate crime, new polling suggests.

The Savanta ComRes survey for the LabourList news website found that 44 per cent of adults support the move, with just 13 per cent opposed and 17 per cent unsure.

Of the more than 2,000 people who took part in the poll, published on Saturday, a quarter said they have no opinion either way. 

Calls for action to protect women have grown louder after a spate of high-profile murders, including that of Sarah Everard, who was raped and killed by a serving police officer in London in March. 

Currently, the law only recognises hate crimes based on race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity; adding misogyny would allow judges to hand out tougher punishments, some activists argue.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has rejected the move, but Labour is in favour. 

The party’s Stella Creasy has previously said that in areas where police forces had introduced it, such as in Nottingham, the move had helped with “changing the culture in the police about how the deal with violence against women.”

Scottish Labour has said the change is urgently needed to address the “national emergency” of violence against women, but the SNP’s working group on whether misogyny should be made a specific criminal offence is not due to report until next year.

However, experts such as Professor Liz Kelly, who runs the child and woman abuse studies unit at London Metropolitan University, have urged caution. 

Prof Kelly argues that it would actually make it harder to tackle anti-women violence because hate crime as a concept is too narrowly defined and divisive.