It is worth noting that, earlier this year, the Press Association made a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to police forces in England and Wales. The request found that police had pursued 78 offences related to upskirting since 2015, most involving alleged offences against young women and girls.

Of these 75 alleged offences, only 11 people were charged. Many cases had to be dropped due to a lack of evidence – including one involving an alleged offence on a 10-year-old girl in the West Country. In addition, only 15 out of 44 police forces held records on offences related to upskirting at all.

So why, with all of this evidence at his disposal, did Chope think it was OK to insist that victims in England and Wales be forced to seek prosecution through other legal avenues, such as outraging public decency or harassment?

Well, because he has form for making terrible decisions. Over the years, he has called for the minimum wage to be abolished, filibustered a bill to make revenge evictions an offence, blocked the bill to protect poor countries from “vulture funds”, hosted a meeting of climate-science sceptics, and voted against the legislation for same-sex marriage.

Chope also voted against the Equal Pay (Transparency) Bill, which would require all companies with more than 250 employees to declare the gap in pay between the average male and female salaries. He blocked a proposal to allow free hospital parking for carers. And he raised an eleventh-hour objection to the Hillsborough debate taking place because he believed a debate about MP pensions was more important.

Upskirting will not be made a crime, thanks to this 71-year-old Tory MP