Since January 2021, 37-year-old Emma Barnett has been the presenter of BBC‘s Woman’s Hour, a platform to discuss women’s issues, feminism, and liberty. It has been on the air since 1946 and runs from 10:00am – 11:00am (GMT +1) on BBC Radio 4. In recent years, Barnett has been accused of disservices to women and religions, such as when she elected to have antisemite Kelechi Okafor on the air. That happened in January 2021, but by February of the same year, hundreds of public figures were calling Barnett out for her hostile interview of Zara Mohammed, the first woman and youngest person to be elected Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain. Now, Barnett’s history with human trafficking has come under the microscope.
There have been allegations against Barnett for her aggressive style of interviewing, but some more shocking discoveries have come to light. The Manchester Evening News reported back in 2010 that Michele Barnett, Emma’s mother, was convicted of laundering thousands of pounds acquired from her husband’s “string of brothels.” In other words, Michele and her husband were convicted of human trafficking and laundering the profits. What’s more alarming, however, is the fact that now — in 2022 — sources have learned that Emma was aware of the whole operation and in fact had intimate knowledge of the human trafficking scheme, but never discussed it with the UK media.
Although this a 10-year-plus-old story, these details coming to the surface certainly points a finger at Emma, whose obstruction of justice holds her accountable for her parent’s crimes. Naturally, once the internet caught wind of Emma’s involvement, it was all pitchforks and torches as feminists everywhere came gunning for the Woman’s Hour host. Perhaps the most unbelievable part of this revelation is that Barnett claims to support women’s rights and safety, essentially presenting herself as a self-proclaimed feminist, except she never intervened when Michele knowingly allowed her husband’s human trafficking plot to unfold and then swept the whole thing under the proverbial rug.
Everyone knows that minority groups — whether it be LGBTQ+, Indigenous people, Jews, women, or anyone else marginalized in our society — are sensitive topics for the entire world. There’s no denying that this development will breed bad news for Barnett, who should expect the same scrutiny as her parents for this complete betrayal of women everywhere.