International Women’s Day Q&A with Penny Mordaunt MP, Secretary of State for International Development NOW CLOSED TO NEW QUESTIONS

[JustineMumsnet]

[EDITED BY MNHQ: Questions have now been collated and sent over - new questions may not be answered]

Hello all,

We’re very pleased to announce a Q&A with Penny Mordaunt MP, Secretary of State for International Development and Minister for Women and Equalities.

Please post your questions on this thread by lunchtime on Wednesday March 6. We’ll send on a selection to the Minister and we will post up written answers from Penny on this thread this coming Friday (March 8), International Women’s Day.

In her role as Secretary of State for International Development, Penny Mordaunt oversees DFID’s work ending extreme poverty overseas, including programmes focused on girls’ education and women’s health. DFID has been in the news recently, facing calls for its budget to be spent partly on encouraging projects that would aid British business overseas, and for it to be folded into the Foreign Office instead of being a standalone department.

In her role as Minister for Women and Equalities, Penny is also responsible for work including gender pay gap reporting and possible changes to the law concerning gender recognition.

Penny campaigned for Brexit in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum and is a Royal Naval Reservist. She has previously been Minister of State for Disabled People and Minister of State for the Armed Forces.

Please add your questions for Penny here by Wednesday lunchtime. And although it’s not a live webchat please stick to the spirit of our webchat guidelines and keep it civil.

If one topic is overwhelmingly dominating responses we might request that people don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point. Rest assured we will ALWAYS make the recipient aware that it's an area of concern to multiple users and will encourage them to engage with those questions.

Thanks
Justine

Nb existing members will be able to post on this thread. Thanks.

Ha I just swung by to post about this. Maria Miller finally being held accountable for throwing women under a bus and the toxic, dangerous fallout those of us who've dared speak out have faced. Many of my favourite activists are there too...and Maria's unsubstantiated attempts to deflect from her responsibilities in this fiasco are going precisely nowhere.

I note Penny has been copied in on a couple of posts.

Settles down with popcorn to enjoy the show...

Maria is certainly getting a pasting. I know it doesn't make things any better but it's somehow cheering when politicians come out with sanctimonious & hypocritical cobblers assuming (I suppose) that we will just swallow it wholesale. And then we don't.

...whats that bit about Chair of women's..... how does someone carrying that mantle...

Thank you for posting the link...and now over to....

I think it is telling that Penny Mordaunt is even engaging with Mumsnet. Wouldn't have happened even 6 months ago.

The Women and Equalities Office has rightly been criticised for excluding women from the GRA consultation.

The Impact Assessment section on the GRA Consultation concentrated solely on how transgender people viewed the impact on women. Let's not forget that. The only place in the entire consultation where the specific impact on women was intended to be explored and the government deliberately engineered it so that it featured the views of transgender people only.

Bit worried that Mordaunt will deliver some glib guff, then say that she's consulted hundreds of thousands of women (of Mumsnet) and go on her merry way.

interesting to see who is popping up on that Maria Mille twitter thread. I see the finance editor of the Economist has taken the opportunity to tell Maria what she thinks.

do you think Penny's gonna show today?

I think she's going to say some bollocks like its a complicated issue & she doesn't wish to add fuel to the fire......she is well & truly backed into a corner......with many eyes watching.

The answers won't come.

She's going to talk at length about all the questions that did not relate to transgenderism.

And she's going to do or say something that will buy her time over the trans issue.

That's my prediction.

She's going to talk at length about all the questions that did not relate to transgenderism

oh yeah, for sure

I mean when you've adopted an indefensible position, defending it is always going to be tough

She's going to talk at length about all the questions that did not relate to transgenderism.

Which will be quite clear to everyone reading the thread.

Yes Helen Joyce at the Economist is the reason for the scales falling from their eyes. FT have Josh Spero who called Janice Turner a transphobe

The Brexit situation means there's a chance of an election soon.

Penny, my vote is up for grabs. I'm voting for ANY party who protects women and girls by upholding our rights to sex segregated spaces.

This is not a trans issue, it is a safety one - 3 women a week are murdered by men they know in the UK. 137 world wide every single fucking day. Your policies allow predatory men to hurt women.

I'm not voting for any party who enables VAWG.

I'm voting for ANY party who protects women and girls by upholding our rights to sex segregated spaces.

Me too.

(Which party would that be then?)

Just checking in (again) for the answers...nope....nothing...nada...

Get off twitter Penny & honour your Mumsnet commitments.

It's the "Horse-Viv coalition" party so far, Horse.

Let's not have a flag.

I don’t think it is going to happen...,

Nothing yet then?

She's going to talk at length about all the questions that did not relate to transgenderism

There were hardly any. Four?

I'll vote for any party that knows what a woman is.

At this point it would be a sign of great leadership and wisdom for anyone, in any of the parties, to stand up and say that being a woman is a biological fact.

It shouldn't be equivalent to the Gettysburg address to say something so simple and so obvious. But this is where we are. Ugh. Made myself angry now

The answers will never be sent.

m voting for ANY party who protects women and girls by upholding our rights to sex segregated spaces.

Labour is going implement self ID and change the EA to remove sex segregate spaces entirely, a vote for labour is one that will throw women under the bus.

Have you all seen Maria Miller's latest tweet? The government seem to be backing down on self id and admitting they made a mistake

@MariaMillerUK

Main recommendations of @Commonswomequ
2015 Trans Inquiry was @Govt_Equality should tackle trans discrimination in public services particularly
@NHSuk

Govt should focus on trans discrimination that’s already against Equality Act law & admit prioritising changing GRA was mistake