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Anneliese Dodds MP, Labour’s Party Chair and Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary, speaking at Labour’s National Annual Women’s Conference 2023, said:
Thank you for that introduction, Angela.
And thank you for all the great work you do for women, not least on the New Deal for Working People which will massively improve women’s working lives.
Speaking of great work for women, wasn’t this a brilliant summer for women’s sport?
The Lionesses’ amazing run to the World Cup final. The thrilling Women’s Ashes series. England reaching the Netball World Championship final.
I want to congratulate these women for smashing through barriers in sport. And send my solidarity to Jenni Hermoso and her Spanish teammates.
These women faced open misogyny in their moment of ultimate triumph and said: we won’t stand for it. Sisters, we stand with you.
I also want to send my solidarity to the women of Ukraine and Afghanistan, who have showed such courage in the face of oppression, harassment and violence.
And for those women and their children who have fled their home to seek refuge in our country – you are welcome here.
Friends, we gather today for our first in-person women’s conference since 2019.
The last four years have been immensely challenging.
First Covid-19. Then the cost of living crisis.
Thanks to the Conservatives, women paid the price for both.
Who stood by while women bore the brunt of rising poverty before the pandemic?
The Tories did.
Who left women hundreds of pounds a year worse off today than they were in 2010?
The Tories did.
Who allowed the gender pay gap to rise?
The Tories did.
This is the cost of the Conservatives – and women can’t afford another five years of it.
Politics is about priorities. And the Conservatives have deprioritised women.
Just look at the ministerial merry-go-round in the Government Equalities Office.
At…
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