FOUNDER: Barbara Follett  Barbara Follett was the Labour Party MP for Stevenage (1997 – 2010). Like many of her parliamentary colleagues, she had overcome difficulties in life to become a Labour MP. But she is unusual in the way she has drawn on her misfortune and experience to strengthen the Labour Party. She is also one of the few MPs who have played a major part in transforming the image of Labour, primarily through practical steps to increase the number of women MPs in the Parliamentary Labour Party. In 1987 she co-founded the Labour Women’s Network, and she has sat on its Management Committee ever since. |
|
CHAIR: Jo Cox Jo Cox is a senior campaigner and political strategist on poverty and discrimination. She is currently Director of the White Ribbon  Alliance’s global Maternal Mortality Campaign and works closely with Sarah Brown, wife of the former Prime Minister, leading clinicians, NGOs, celebrities, health professionals and a wide variety of health and development experts to galvanize action to stop mums and babies dying needlessly in pregnancy and childbirth. Jo previously worked in a variety of roles at the international development organisation Oxfam, including Head of Oxfam’s Europe Office in Brussels, Policy and Advocacy Director for Oxfam UK and Head of Oxfam’s global Humanitarian Campaigning based in New York. Before joining Oxfam, she spent six years working in politics and political campaigning in the UK and Europe, including 2 years with Baroness Glenys Kinnock in Brussels. During the 2010 General Election campaign she coordinated a series of mini-campaigns in support of the Labour Party. She sits on the board of the Burma Campaign UK, was nominated in 2009 by the Davos World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, lives on a boat on the Thames and is a new mum. |
|
SECRETARY: Nan Sloane  Nan Sloane is a former Labour councillor and Regional Director of the Labour Party. She is currently the Director of the Centre for Women & Democracy, a member of the Council of Unlock Democracy and a Fellow of the RSA. Nan has many years’ experience of working to increase women’s participation in both civil society and politics, and, besides being LWN’s Secretary, she also has a lead role in delivering training and organising the CV Surgery service. |
|
COMMITTEE MEMBERS (alphabetical by surname)
|
Luciana Berger  Luciana Berger is the Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, having been elected in 2010. Prior to her election, Luciana was one of the many aspiring women MPs to undertake residential training with LWN. As Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Berger, has been critical of the Government’s actions on the environmental agenda, particularly focussing on the Green Investment Bank and the Green Deal, writing in the Environment Guardian about the need for a pro-environmental-business agenda. In the run up to the 2011 Budget, Berger also contributed an article to the Labour blog Left Foot Forward challenging the Chancellor of the Exchequer to meet “three Climate Change tests”. |
|
Marie Birchall  Marie is a policy analyst whose career has included stints working for the Labour Party, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the United Nations and women’s rights NGO One World Action. She is currently the Scottish Labour Party’s Policy Advisor.
Aside from Labour Party politics, Marie’s other great passion is gender equality. With a particular interest in women’s political inclusion, Marie managed the More Women More Power campaign, which worked to ensure women around the world had a voice in the international development decisions being make in their communities. Until recently she was also Young Labour’s National Women’s Officer and a co-editor of the website Women’s Views on News.
|
| |
Kate Green MP  Kate Green was elected MP for Stretford and Urmston in May 2010, on an all-women shortlist. She’d previously contested the safe Tory seat of Cities of London and Westminster in the 1997 general election, and was a Greater London Assembly candidate in 2000. Immediately before her election, Kate was chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, and before that director of the National Council for One Parent Families (now Gingerbread). She’s also worked for the Home Office and for a high street bank. Kate takes a particular interest in policy in relation to poverty, employment and equality. She was a member of the National Employment Panel, chair of the London Child Poverty Commission, and chaired the End Child Poverty campaign. She is the current Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, and also focuses on disability issues. Her Greater Manchester constituency is home to a highly diverse population, and Kate especially enjoys the opportunity this gives her to work with women from a wide range of backgrounds and communities.Kate served as a magistrate for 16 years, and has retained an interest in criminal justice. When she’s not working, she loves theatre, swims, and enjoys good company, food and wine. |
|
Sara Ibrahim Sara is the current Chair of the Young Fabians, the under 31 branch of the Fabian Society. She works as a barrister specialising in the fields of employment and commercial law. In her spare time she is also a school governor for a primary school in Camden and a trustee for a charity that works to rehabilitate ex-offenders. In 2011, she undertook the LWN residential training for aspiring parliamentary candidates and is keen to see an expansion of the role LWN plays within the Labour party.
Ann Leedham  Ann Leedham |
Kirsty McNeil Kirsty was most recently Director of Strategy for the Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown, having served 3 years as an adviser in No 10  leading on external relations, political speech-writing and equalities. Before joining Downing St she was the European Government Relations Manager for Bono and Bob Geldof’s Africa campaigning organisation DATA (now the ONE Campaign) and on the Coordination Team of Make Poverty History. In 2005 she secured the biggest general election swing to Labour in the country and is now a regular LWN trainer preparing Labour women for the selections and elections ahead.
Kathryn Perera  Kathryn is the Communications Officer for LWN. She is currently the Head of Innovation for Movement for Change, the home of community organising within the Labour Movement. Previously, she worked as a barrister specialising in employment and public law at 11KBW Chambers. Kathryn stood as Labour’s parliamentary candidate at the 2010 General Election in her hometown of Aylesbury. She is passionate about helping more women to engage politically at a national and local level. She is a trustee of the Fawcett Society and a contributor to media such as The Guardian, Labourlist, Progress and Fabian Review. |
|
Rachael Saunders  Rachael is a Labour councillor for Mile End East in Tower Hamlets – a former Chief Whip and Cabinet member for Adult Health and Wellbeing when Labour was in power, she now chairs the Health Scrutiny committee, working to increase the involvement of local people in their NHS. In her day job she works for a campaigning charity on women at work. She is on the board of the Rich Mix Cultural Foundation, the Bromley by Bow centre, a trailblazing community organisation, St Paul’s Way Community Trust school and Half Moon theatre. Rachael previously worked as the National Women’s Officer of the Labour Party. |
|
Jacqui Smith  Jacqui Smith is the former Home Secretary and one of the longest serving Ministers in the Labour government. She was elected as MP for Redditch in 1997 having been selected on an All Woman Shortlist. Prior to Parliament, she was a teacher and local councillor and has been a Labour activist for many more years than she has been an elected representative! Having experienced the best and the worst of political life, she is keen to use her experience to get Labour women selected, elected and involved at all levels. |
| |
Melanie Ward  Melanie Ward is Treasurer of LWN, responsible for keeping our accounts and overseeing our fundraising. She works in international development and is also a trustee of a charity which supports women’s political participation in poor countries.
Melanie has previously worked in parliament and is a former President of NUS Scotland. She has a degree from the University of Stirling and a Masters from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. |
Hi ,
how do i go about joing the comittie
I have been a nurse in forensic psychiatry 26 yrs,i’m a very active unison rep.we have womens group and I also sit on the regional womens group that unison have.I am also a single parent working full time with 2 children
I have only just joined the labour party and this group
I have just got back from the national womens labour psrty conference in liverpool
Cheers Annette
Hi Annette,
The Committee is elected on an annual basis at our AGM, which usually takes place at the Party Conference. This year, the AGM was in Liverpool in September. Committee members are elected for a 2-year term, and previously this has been by a vote at the AGM itself. This year, we moved to a postal ballot, and we will be exploring other ways to include more members in the democratic processes of the LWN in the coming year.