Dear Andy,
LWN was founded to secure women’s equality in the Labour Party. We train and empower women to lead, stand for public office and play their full part in the Labour Party. We fight sexism and discrimination and campaign for changes to remove the barriers that try to hold women back. We believe in sisterhood no matter your shade of red and bring diverse Labour women together to make our voice heard. We are the only women’s membership organisation affiliated to the Labour Party.
Our training is feminist, grounded in political reality, and it works. Of the 100 new Labour women MPs elected at the last general election, 50% were LWN graduates. And across our nations and regions, hundreds of Labour women – councillors, candidates for selections and elections, activists and future leaders – are graduates of our training, supported by our network of thousands of members, supporters and allies.
Labour Women’s Network will turn 40 in just two years. As we start to reflect on what we’ve achieved over four decades, one thing remains clear: women’s equal participation and leadership is essential for our Party and our democracy. We are in a time of rising misogyny that is eroding women’s safety, power and agency. With threats to gender equality on the rise, our fight feels ever more urgent.
Progress towards equality never happens by accident. It happens because we fight for it, defend it, and invest in it. We are writing to ask you to commit to the following priorities to ensure that women’s representation, safety, and equality continue to advance in the UK and in the Party, if you are elected Leader of the Labour Party and become Prime Minister.
- Will you commit to appointing a Cabinet where at least 50% of the Secretaries of State are women, including at least 2 of the 4 of the Great Offices of State, and to ensuring that women’s representation does not decrease in any future reshuffles?
- What will you commit to do to tackle the misogynist ‘boys club’ culture in politics, ensuring that under your leadership women have equal prominence, visibility and voice within No.10, in Cabinet and Government, and in the Labour Party?
- Will you commit to ensure the ongoing use of All Women Shortlists, and specifically for Labour to use All Women Shortlists in at least 50% of all vacant seats where a Labour MP is standing down at the next general election?
- As devolution continues to reshape political power across England, how will you ensure women’s representation, particularly for women of colour, improves at all levels of elected office?
- Will you commit to establishing within the Labour Party a complaints process for sexual harassment cases that is fully independent from first report through to final outcome?
- Will you commit to taking forward the Representation of the People Bill in this Parliamentary Session, including the provisions to more robustly tackle harassment and intimidation of candidates, campaigners, elected representatives and electoral staff.
- Will you commit to fully delivering the Labour manifesto commitment to halve violence against women and girls, ensuring this work is properly funded, embedded and prioritised across Government.
- Will you support LWN’s #NoManels campaign and refuse to organise or appear on an all-male panel (defined as a discussion with more than one speaker plus a chair).
In sisterhood and solidarity,
Labour Women’s Network