Welcome to Labour Women's Network

Gordon Brown's new Cabinet

We are delighted to welcome Harriet Harman MP in the role of Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Leader of the House of Commons and our Minister for Women. We also congratulate one of our founders, Barbara Follett MP who is Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and Deputy Minister for Women. And, best of all, for the very first time, a woman Home Secretary - Jacqui Smith MP. Congratulations to all the women MPs in the Labour cabinet.

Congratulations to our Winning Women

Since last year, parliamentary selections have been taking place. Some of us might argue that there were not enough All Women Shortlists as we know from experience that ‘Open’ seats may look open but most of the time aspirant men will outnumber women. Despite this, women should still put themselves forward for the Open seats as members are more astute than given credit, and will sometimes pick the best person for the job! The same, sadly, cannot be said for the NEC’s By-election Panel who so far have excelled themselves in not choosing a female candidate in a winnable seat since 1994. Women should also go for the less winnable seats as a ‘starter’ to get experience and ‘rehearse’ the role of candidate. However, all is not doom and gloom - party members in the following constituencies have selected wonderful women candidates for the next General Election. LWN and EMILY know very well what it costs, both financially and in time and effort, to become a candidate and we congratulate them all. And we are still in the lead over the Tories and Lib-Dems for selecting more women in good seats. [Seats currently held by Labour are indicated with an asterisk]:

Basingstoke	Funda Pepperell
Bath	Harriet Ajderian
Bermondsey & Old Southwark	Kirsty McNeill
Bethnal Green and Bow	Rushanara Ali
Bolton South East *	Yasmin Qureshi
Bournemouth West	Sharon Carr-Brown
Brighton Pavilion *	Nancy Platts
Broadland, Norfolk	Allyson Barron
Camborne and Redruth	Judith Robinson
Hemel Hempstead	Ayfer Orhan
Hornsey and Wood Green	Karen Jennings
Leeds West *	Rachel Reeves
Manchester, Withington	Lucy Powell
Mid Norfolk	Elizabeth Hughes

Training and Support

LWN has an ongoing Training Programme for all women in the Labour Party who are interested in seeking selection to public office. This includes local government, the Scottish Parliament, Welsh National Assembly, the Greater London Assembly, European Parliament and Westminster Parliament. If you are a LWN subscriber we provide a ‘CV Support Service’ by email. Our subscription for Labour Party women members is still only £15 for waged, and £5 low/unwaged (press the button for JOIN US). We also provide one day events, if enough women are interested in taking part, in public speaking and presentation skills, and writing a speech and, on request, training for other relevant skills. If you are interested, please email LWN@Oaksey.com.

[Last updated October 2007].