Dominic Raab has left BBC Breakfast viewers stunned with his comments about misogyny during an interview with Sally Nugent.

The Secretary of State for Justice was joining BBC Breakfast on a live stream from the Conservative party conference in Manchester when Sally quizzed the Deputy Prime Minister on calls to make misogyny a hate crime.

Mr Raab provoked amazement on social media after suggesting misogyny applied to men as well.

Following on from comments made by Boris Johnson yesterday, who thinks the current issues with effectively dealing with crime and violence against women should be tackled first, Sally asked the former Foreign Affairs minister:

"I just wanted to start with something we heard the Prime Minister say on this programme yesterday, he said he 'does not support calls to make misogyny a hate crime', what's your view on that?"

Mr Raab replied: "Well look, we've often seen in the criminal justice system over decades people trying to legislate a way that is an enforcement problem."

Sally Nugent (left) looks on confused by Dominic Raab's comment about misogyny during his interview on BBC Breakfast

He then went on to add: "I think insults and misogyny is of course absolutely wrong whether it's a man against a woman, or a woman against a man."

Double taking a short while later, Sally replied: "I just want to clarify something you said right at the start of our conversation this morning, you said 'misogyny is absolutely wrong whether it's a man against a woman, or a woman against a man', is that what you meant to say?"

Raab replied: "What I meant to say is that if we're talking about things below the level of public order offences of harassment intimidation, which are all rightly criminalised, if we're talking about effectively insults with a sexist basis, I don't think criminalising those thoughts of things will deal with the problem that we've got at the heart of the heart of the Sarah Everard case..."

The presenter then gave Raab with the definition of misogyny: "The dictionary definition of misogyny is 'hatred directed towards women', something Raab avoided replying to directly.

He added: "Well if any of that, so inciting hatred, intimidation, harassment are already criminal offences, so what I would say is don't create other low level offences, what you want to focus on is how to enforce the offences that we've got in law which protect women from the kind of intimidation and harassment I think you're focusing on.

"Reducing the bar and saying 'actually, insults should be criminalised', I don't think will deal with what women across this country are fearful of, which is the risk to life or live, risk of intimidation, the risk of harassment - all those things are currently criminal, the question is how we enforce those laws much more effectively and much more sensitively towards women."

Viewers on Twitter were quick to comment on Raab's comments.

@vijram92 said: "So Raab does not even know what misogyny means? Given that it had been in the news, the PM was questioned about it, he would have looked it up. Too much like work, I suppose."

@mancgas Tweeted: "Mrs Raab…….I think he’d like a dictionary and thesaurus for Xmas. One less gift to think about.", which @Kernowboy1971 replied to with: "He's already getting an atlas."

"Hard for the UK government to combat misogyny if the deputy PM and justice sec does not actually know what it is...", added @proukakis

@stutakesphotos said: "Mansplaining misogyny. Humankind weeps."

"I think that the Justice Secretary Dominic Raab has never searched in a dictionary the meaning of ‘misogyny’ - let’s clarified it for him: misogyny according to Merriam Webster is: hatred of, aversion to, or prejudice against women - not men", Tweeted @BiancaJagger.

BBC Breakfast airs from 6am every weekday morning on BBC One.