Justice for Men and Boys

Background

The party was founded in 2013, and is led by a retired businessman and former Conservative Party consultant, Mike Buchanan. He is the author of ten books, a number of them concerned with gender politics, including Feminism: The Ugly Truth (2012).

J4MB is the only anti-feminist political party in the English-speaking world and has become the subject of controversy in the British media, having been covered in articles and in television, radio and print interviews. This led to the commissioning of Mike Buchanan as a columnist by the International Business Times, but the relationship was terminated because his submitted (but unpublished) articles courted controversy. The two articles which were published, were on the subject of male suicide and female representation in corporate boardrooms.

The party issues awards for "lying feminist of the month", "toxic feminist of the month" and "whiny feminist of the month" and includes a link to an article entitled "13 reasons women lie about being raped" on its website.

In its 2015 general election manifesto, the party explored twenty areas in which the human rights of men and boys in the UK are being violated.

The party co-hosted the second International Conference on Men's Issues in London, between 8 and 10 July 2016 in association with A Voice for Men.

Philip Davies MP, a member of the Justice Select Committee, spoke to the conference asserting that the criminal justice system favours women's over men's rights. However, Jenny Earle, director of Prison Reform Trust’s programme for reducing women’s imprisonment, said, "The evidence is not that women are treated more leniently. In fact they are twice as likely as men to receive a custodial sentence for a first offence, and the main offence for which women are imprisoned is theft and shoplifting."

In response, Buchanan points to an analysis published in a blog by Men's Rights Advocates in the UK. The blog extrapolates data regarding sentencing, prison population and parole figures to claim that there is a gender bias in favour of women.

Electoral performance

The party stood for election for the first time at the 2015 general election, with two candidates. Party leader Mike Buchanan stood in Ashfield against the Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, Gloria De Piero. Buchanan came last with 153 votes out of 47,409 cast. Ray Barry stood in Broxtowe and also came last with 63 votes out of 53,440 cast.

On 28 September 2016, Buchanan announced his intention to stand against the Prime Minister, Theresa May, in her Maidenhead constituency in the 2020 general election.

Parliamentary elections

General election, 7 May 2015