Boxing fans have hit out at Northamptonshire MP Louise Mensch after she today called for boxing to be banned.
The MP for Corby, who this week revealed she is to stand down as an MP, told her 102,000 Twitter followers how she would like to see the sport banned as “there is no safe way to do it”.
Her comment come after Britain’s Nicola Adams won an historic gold medal in womens’ boxing yesterday.
Mrs Mensch this morning tweeted: “I’m thrilled when we win any gold medal, but reading the science on head injuries, I think all boxing should be banned.
“No safe way to do it.”
However, readers of the Chronicle & Echo have hit out at her view, defending the sport.
Lyndsey Kirchin said: “The amount of boxing clubs that where set up to get kids off the street, and help them not go around beating everyone up.”
“If your going to ban boxing, are you going to ban all martial arts?”
Kaylea Anne Willis said: “What’s her reasoning for it being banned? She obviously has no knowledge on the sport. Precautions are taken to avoid as little harm to come to people when sparing anyway.
“Some people are so miserable how about we just ban every contact sport and wrap ourselves in cotton wool. Oh dear.”
Ben Hoomans added: “Not a fan particularly of boxing but I wouldn’t dream of banning it. Might as well ban every sport in the world as there is an element of danger in it. There’s more injuries in football than boxing. Ban that?”
Meanwhile Ed Miliband has launched his fight to win back a Labour seat in Northamptonshire after Mrs Mensch stood down, vowing to turn his campaign into a “crusade for young people”.
The Labour leader was in Thrapston yesterday where he pledged to knock on every door in a bid to win votes in a forthcoming by-election.
He said: “I make this promise about this campaign - we are going to be visiting every door in this campaign, whether people voted Tory, Liberal Democrat, Labour or didn’t vote at all.
“Less than half the people voted at the last council election - we’ve got to reach out to them.
“We’ve got to reach out to people who are turned off politics.
“We’ve got to make this campaign, and we are going to make this campaign, a crusade for the young people of Corby, a crusade for people right across Corby.”
Mrs Mensch won by only 1,951 votes in the 2010 general election. Labour had previously held the constituency since 1997.