, Labour’s Shadow
Attorney General, speaks at the Labour Party Conference
"Friends, it’s been a year, but I’ve got to say it feels like
nothing’s changed.
The economy’s still wrecked. The rivers are still full of sewage.
Waiting lists are still rising. Schools are still falling apart.
It’s like we’re trapped in some never-ending time loop of Tory
incompetence. The Groundhog Day of Gross Dereliction. The
Multiverse of Crapness.
But conference, if the British people decide to break this cycle,
get rid of this government and give us the chance to fix the
damage they have done, we will be ready for the task.
And for Yvette, Shabana and me – the first time either Party has
had three women in our roles – we know one of our biggest jobs
will be rebuilding the criminal justice system, restoring the
rule of law, and tackling the injustices that plague our country.
And that must include renewing our fight against the most
widespread, most historic, and most entrenched injustice of all –
our society’s treatment of women.
We walk in the footsteps of the legends who fought for equal
representation, the right to vote, the Equal Pay Act and the
Abortion Rights Act.
We pay tribute to the women in recent years who have fought to
extend maternity rights, eliminate the Tampon Tax, outlaw
upskirting and revenge porn, and bring reproductive freedom to
Northern Ireland.
We applaud Anneliese, Bridget and Angela, who right now are
leading the fight to get misogyny treated as a hate crime, to
tackle the poison of ‘rape culture’ in our schools, and to close
the gender pay gap.
And we dedicate ourselves over the coming years to deliver Keir
Starmer’s mission to halve the level of violent crime against
women and girls.
But there are more injustices we must address if we are going to
create the truly equal society that our mothers and grand-mothers
fought so hard to achieve, and which our daughters and
grand-daughters have the right to expect.
And I want to announce action on three of those injustices today.
For too long, women in co-habiting couples have been left with no
rights when those relationships come to an end. If there is no
joint property or parental responsibilities, a man can leave his
partner with nothing, especially if he has the means to go to
court, and she does not.
It is time we reviewed this issue in England and Wales, as it has
been in New Zealand, Scotland and Ireland. No woman should be
forced to get married or stay in an unhappy relationship just to
avoid ending up on the street.
For too long as well, a woman suffering sexual harassment in the
workplace has faced a terrible choice: if she speaks out, the
individual responsible may be investigated, but even then, she
still risks losing her job and her other employment rights, while
he gets a slap on the wrist.
It is time we offered the same protections to people reporting
sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination in the workplace
as we do to other whistleblowers. No woman should be forced to
stay quiet for fear of being sacked.
And finally, for too long, millions of women have had to live
life in the shadow of a stalker, afraid to walk out of their door
or switch on their computer, and told by the police that no
action can be taken until ‘something more serious’ happens.
That is why, in our country, it is two hundred times more likely
for a woman to be a victim of stalking than it is for her stalker
to end up in prison.
It is time we treated stalking with the seriousness it deserves,
strengthening the use of Stalking Protection Orders, developing
the right for women to know the identity of their online
stalkers, and working to end the sick practice of stalkers
abusing our court system to bring vexatious claims against their
victims.
Because no woman should be forced to wait until she is attacked
to get the protection she deserves.
These are the practical changes only a Labour government will
deliver. On Stalking. Whistleblowing. And Co-Habitation. Making
women better protected in the streets, online, at work, and in
their homes.
And over the coming months, I will work to review the current
laws through the eyes of the women who are having to navigate
them, supported by the advice of experts like Marina Wheeler, who
has spent years working on harassment and discrimination cases;
and Nicola Thorp, who has spoken so courageously about her own
experiences as a victim of stalking.
All of us sharing the belief that no woman should have to live in
fear, no woman should have to suffer in silence, and no woman
should have to hope for the best when it comes to keeping a roof
over her head.
Those are the next set of injustices we must fight. And
Conference, that is the difference between a Tory government that
pretends to care about women’s rights, and a Labour Party that
actually delivers them."
