A veteran Labour Party MP has been accused of forcing 'woke' newspeak language onto a new human rights watchdog role.
Conservatives on the Joint Committee on Human Rights claimed that chairperson Harriet Harman insisted that the new post be called "ombudsperson" instead of ombudsman, a term commonly used for both male and female public regulators.
The person hired for the proposed new job would have duties including taking evidence from witnesses including the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
"Oh God. Ombudsper-child surely. Son is a male term," one un-named MP told MailOnline mockingly. "The reality of Harriet is she's always had this stance form her early days... the right-on causes. She hasn't really modified that."
A notice published ahead of Wednesday's committee meeting used the neologism repeatedly.
"Ombudspersons handle complaints made against public authorities," it read. "The UK currently has ombudspersons covering a range of responsibilities including the NHS, housing, social care and financial services."
"In this opening session, the Committee will examine how a human rights ombudsperson could fit within the existing ombuds structure and how it could improve the protection of rights in the UK," it added.
But a spokesman for the committee insisted the use of the clunky "gender-neutral term" was decided on collectively by its 12 members.
"It wasn't a chair-led decision but we decided to use it as a neutral term," he told the news site. "Ombudsperson hasn't been established, but the committee has been keen to move towards more gender-neutral terms."
"We thought it was more appropriate to use in this instance as we no longer use the term chairman, for example," the spokesman said. "But it wasn't intended to be some grandiose gesture."