Major win for Labour Women's Declaration

[fromorbit]

Major Development Starmer has finally agreed to talk to Labour Women's Declaration and listen to their concerns after women talked to him at The Labour Women's Network Gala Dinner. If he sticks with this this means the era of No debate in Labour is totally over.

This looks to be a big win for women and owes everything to those who spent years on this and especially everyone who argued with canvassers about RespectmyX. Starmer can't have missed the pressure. Your voices were heard! You all changed the course of the second most powerful party in the UK.

See this tweet from Joan Smith earlier in the evening: twitter.com/polblonde/status/1527010428764704768

Later Details from LWD Here:
twitter.com/LabWomenDec/status/1527018832229015553

This doesn't mean Starmer or others are going to do what LWD will say or they can be trusted. Nothing can be taken for granted. What happens going forward as always relies on how strong and how loud those who back women's sex based rights in the party are. Lots of battles ahead.

What it does potentially mean is we have a chance for Open Debate at all levels of the party via leadership endorsement and it will be a game changer. Gender Crits may get a proper chance to be heard, but we will be fighting to win support. Have no doubt it would be a vicious long battle like any policy debate inside Labour. However given what LWD has achieved so far you would be foolish to think that these great women and their supporters inside and beyond the party can't pull it off. Especially as the news of Starmer simply talking to LWD may inspire mass resignations from those opposing us. Debating reality openly is not their strong point.

This is the start of a bigger struggle, but a great achievement. I know many reading this will not be ready to trust Labour again and you shouldn't be without proof.

What you should trust though is the strength of Labour women to try to make a difference in the party, it isn't the first time they have had to fight through sexist nonsense, and nothing is going to make them give up.

Yes! This is such good news. I've been unable to vote Labour because of their position on this. Really hope this means the start of sane politics with women's rights respected.

Fantastic news, from. It would be great to feel like there was someone I could vote for again.

I’m not holding my breath, tbh.

Positive news, however until they publicity declare that they will U-turn on Self ID then I'm holding back.

Starmer, Rayner, Lammy, Nandy and many others have been so vocal about how they would proudly bring in Self-ID.....I just won't believe it.until they officially declare it.

I wouldn't trust Labour now on any grounds. Don't forget it was Labour who wrote, defended and passed the Gender Recognition Act in 2004. It was Labour who created, defended and passed the Equality Act 2010. (IIRC both laws were passed on 3 line whips.) Both laws are badly written and full of holes because they gave so very little consideration to how their laws would impact on women and children.

It will take much more for me to consider voting for Labour again.

Maude is right. Don't get your hopes up.

The problem is that they have said such extreme things, like Nandy saying a child rapist should be housed in womens prison if he says he is a woman and Lamy saying not only women have a cervix, that they are going to have to say that they were wrong and retract. I dont believe they will do this, they will be mealy mouthed and expect women to just 'be kind'.

Good, I hope you're successful. However, like other PPs I won't trust Labour again. It's not in my interests and frankly I don't care about it and why should I? I'd prefer it to be replaced with a new political party.

Depends on whether he is going to listen and take action or if this is just window dressing pretence, doesnt it. Actions speak louder than words and he has stood by and done nothing so far.

There is a by election coming up, the local election results were not good enough - I see this this as a window dressing fob off. Lets see some real action, Kier. He needs to say loudly and clearly that there is a conflict of rights, that women need safe spaces, that the Labour party has been wrong to support no debate and to apologise for that.

To present the leader of the opposition being willing to listen to concerns affecting women as a "major win" simply shows how for Labour have to go before they deserve a vote. It is absolutely disgusting that a politician has NOT listened before.

He has just restated Labour's current policy?

What will be most interesting to me is how he will react to the inevitable outbursts by gender identity proponents, the cries of transphobia and the hyperbole. I'm assuming that, being a penis person, he won't get the rape and death threats reserved for Rosie Duffield. JKR et al.

Wait for the tantrums to start, the "disappointment", the pressure not to meet such a "hate group" and just watch him back out. I hope I'm proven wrong but won't hold my breath. And like others it'll take a complete u-turn on self ID for me to even begin contemplating whether they're worth my vote. And even then I'd need to see a hell of a lot more action.

I have huge respect for the Labour Women's Declaration. They are braver and more tenacious than I am. I wish them the very best. I really mean that - I didn't enjoy spoiling my vote the other week.

Sorry but that's all I've got right now.

I completely agree with Floisme. All respect for those women, but I'm not convinced anything will change.

Great work from the LWD team. I agree that it's going to take massive root and branch change for me to ever even consider trusting Labour.

All those tweets from women who've written and emailed, no replies. I could forgive one or two being missed but all of them? If it's him ignoring them he's a coward. If he genuinely hasn't seen any then it seems whoever handles his post is filtering them out. If I were him I'd want to know what's going on, what else is being kept from me and I'd be making changes to my staff.

Good news though, well done LWD, but not holding my breath.

They picked a side and it wasn't women. the women bullied out of the party, the women bullied still in the party, the ridiculous sexist statements, the slogan chanting...Nah, can't trust any one of them. The only reason they are stopping and considering women's rights and safeguarding is votes.

Starmer looks to me to be nearly done, anway. Who's next, Streeting?

Well, we all know what group he was part of.

I doubt very much they can turn themselves around in time for the next election. I appreciate the women fighting this from the inside but there is a long way to go before I can trust Labour. It shouldn't be a major win just to speak to politicians. They chose to ignore women and avoid conflict. They are still cowards in my mind.

There is no point in me re-examining my position on voting unless more than words come out of this, too much has happened.

If we are to have any hope of winning this we have to maximise on ANY opportunity, not look at possible opportunities and just say ' nah, its all hopeless innit, they are bastards anyway.'

Personally I am going to write to Keir Starmer and my Labour MP to say how pleased I about this and would love to rejoin the Labour party and stop having to tactically vote Conservative if they can start centring women's rights and safeguarding again.

I wish I could say I am surprised by most of the reactions to this, but I am not. I can totally see why no-one is willing to trust Labour. I also don't expect you too either. Women get to demand the highest standards for their safety from politicians.

Personally though I can't see any alternative to helping women retake real power inside Labour. Labour already in power in scores of Local Councils. I am in Wales there is no prospect of any other party doing anything here except Plaid who are worse than Labour on gender. Whether Labour win power in Westminster in 2024 or not sooner or later they will be back in power there too. Because Parliament has supreme power in the UK we cannot allow either of our major parties to be dominated by genderists. Remember Parliament can pass a law tomorrow saying women are pieces of cheese and that would be the legal reality. The Tories let us not forget put in and are keeping male rapists in women's prisons. So we are faced with grim choices.

The suffragettes were right. Unless women have real power through Parliament they will never be truly equal. There is no new party magically coming to save us. That means fighting to reclaim the parties that already exist by supporting MPs, Councillors, Lords who can see reality and will fight for it.

I think Labour can be saved through combined pressure from outside & within. It might just take a long time. I can't blame anyone for not wanting to get involved internally. Because Labour internal wars are nasty and painful.

I'm with you OP. Tory is certainly not an alternative for women.

I voted Labour in 2019 as I had all my adult life. I did so in good faith because in their manifesto they had pledged to honour single sex spaces. From what I have seen and heard since then I can only conclude they were crossing their fingers behind their back when they spoke, and that what they really meant by 'single sex' was single gender.

So next time they make a pronouncement, I want to see their hands.

That's all.

Mmn. Actions, not words. Heard a lot of very pretty words. Had so much word salad I'm choking on it.

Stop talking and do something Starmer.