Labour’s General Election campaign should have featured more women. Labour’s record on increasing women’s representation is one to be proud of, yet it is taken for granted. It should be better and I will continue to campaign for more opportunities. However, by failing to strongly enough contrast Labour’s record with that of both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, voters were not reminded about which Party works for and has delivered most for women. Tony Blair established Cabinets that were comfortable for the first time with a substantial female representation. Labour’s record of improved schools, health, Sure Start centres, and improved maternity provisions all gave an excellent story which has not been fully told. My campaign experiences were that this message had not got through to the electorate. The consequences of this are rapidly becoming clear.
Home Secretary Theresa May has scrapped the Labour legislation to ban dometic abusers from victim’s homes. When brought in all parties supported the legislation so why have the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats changed their mind?
Money is the answer as Theresa May said:
“in tough economic times, we are now considering our options for delivering improved protection and value for money,”
Further confirmation that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are putting women second came from Yvette Cooper MP’s work which showed 70% of tax revenues will come from women, £6bn of a total £8bn. Today it is reported that Theresa May has warned the Chancellor that cuts may affect women disproportionally and give rise to a challenge under (Labour’s) equality legislation. How long before we see more equality legislation rolled back?
One aspect of the reporting of this story is that it has not recognised the impact the Conservative and Liberal Democrat changes will have on children. From my time running Gingerbread the single parent’s charity I know that 90% of single parents are women. When there is an acrimonious split with abusive behaviour it is not just the partner who suffers, it is the children. This is consistently under reported and it is predominantly although not exclusively men who are abusive to women. So when Theresa May scraps this legislation it is children who will suffer when men return to the family home against the mother’s wishes. Labour needs to identify which government introduced this child supportive legislation, and not be afraid of pointing out that the government’s cuts will affect vulnerable children. This is not being emotive, it is just stating the facts.
