Joey Barton could face Government and legal action over social media posts

Barton has posted a series of controversial tweets on X

Sports minister Stuart Andrew has confirmed he will "look at" what can be done to stop Barton's continuous rants against women.

As reported by The Telegraph, one of those women has contacted lawyers over "defamatory" abuse directed at her.

Over the past month Barton has launched a number of personal attacks against women working in football.

Last week he compared ITV pundits Eniola Aluko and Lucy Ward to renowned British serial killers, Fred and Rose West.

After ITV released a statement condemning his comments, Barton doubled down.

Government have now intervened after Andrew publicly condemned Barton in parliament on Tuesday.

He said: "These are dangerous comments that open the floodgates for abuse and that’s not acceptable.

Andrew also stated that he would be "happy" to raise the issue with social media companies.

As well as his comments about women working in football, Barton became embroiled in a row with Louise Raw, a television and radio historian and writer, following his comments  made about the involvement of his brother, Michael, in the racist murder of the black teenager Anthony Walker.

The heated conversation led to Barton accusing her of being a "pure grifter" over a GoFundMe campaign she fronted last year to bring legal action against Jeremy Clarkson for an article the presenter wrote stating the Duchess of Sussex should be "made to parade naked through the streets".

His comments then saw him receive a message from Lawrence Davies, the chief executive of Equal Justice, who replied on X: "Dear Mr Barton We act for Louise Raw. Your tweets about her are certainly defamatory and we will be writing to you formally in that regard later this week. Please provide an address for service, or your lawyers contact details. Please desist from further defamatory comment.

"I can confirm that all monies raised on GFM were transferred to my firm No monies were retained by my client No monies were used by her, other than for the purposes of obtaining legal advice Your allegation of grifting by her is entirely untrue and damages her reputation."

Barton then replied: "You can send it to my personal email address, http://mybigfathairya------.com Look forward to hearing from you."

Related links:

• Joey Barton responds to Rebecca Welch becoming first female ref in Premier League
• Joey Barton claims the ‘British, white, middle-aged man is under attack’ in latest rant
• Alex Scott hits back at Joey Barton after he says women shouldn’t talk about men’s football