Is the Labour Party in favour of positive action?
Yes. We have tried many ways of getting more women elected and selected at all levels of the Party. Most successful in parliamentary terms are all-women shortlists and we put the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act through in 2002 to enable us to use them. In the General Election of 2005 the use of all women shortlists ensured that 65% of the new Labour intake were women and that, for the first time in history, a political party had more new women than new men MPs. What are Labour’s goals or targets for women’s representation? The Party’s target is that 40 percent of the Parliamentary Labour Party to be women after the next General Election. The goal is parity. Does the Labour Party have women’s sections? Yes. They are known as Women’s Forums and we have them at constituency level and, occasionally, at national level. Stevenage has a Women’s Forum which Councillor Carol Latif chairs and its next meeting is on Saturday 13th January at 10.30am in the Ingelheim Lounge, Daneshill
