New members of the Women's and Equality Committee announced - not much hope there

[IwantToRetire]

Sarah Owen MP
Labour Luton North Chair

Alex Brewer MP
Liberal Democrat North East Hampshire

David Burton-Sampson MP
Labour Southend West and Leigh

Kirith Entwistle MP
Labour Bolton North East

Natalie Fleet MP
Labour Bolsover

Catherine Fookes MP
Labour Monmouthshire

Christine Jardine MP
Liberal Democrat Edinburgh West

Samantha Niblett MP
Labour South Derbyshire

Rachel Taylor MP
Labour

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/328/women-and-equalities-committee/membership/

(No Tories - is Kemi Badenoch waiting to see if she because Tory Party leader, and if not take up a place?)

Hmm. Bit odd to have no Tories at all.

As far as I know there's no specific regulation on numbers of members from each party - unlike committee chairs - but they usually try to get a spread don't they?

Just what I was thinking. Are there rules about this?

Select Committee membership by convention broadly represents the party balance in the House overall, so obviously in this parliament it’s heavily Labour on them all. I assume the Tories have done some trading with the Lib Dems over their allocation here - possibly they’ve bagged a seat from them on a different committee in return for an extra one here. Presumably no Tory backbencher was that keen.

Anyone interested might want to read this discussion (political nerds only I imagine). constitution-unit.com/2024/09/12/select-committee-elections-how-should-a-proportional-allocation-between-parties-be-calculated/

Samantha Niblett is a great name, though.

Let's hope one or two of them know what a woman is.

I think some of them are brand new MPs. It'll be interesting to see how their views unfold in the public arena.

I'm going to take the assumption that any Lib Dems and Labour MPs on the list are going to follow the party line....

The party line in the Lib Dems (my own natural choice) seems to be fully TWAW 🤦‍♀️, whereas Labour are more split at a senior level - Wes Streeting is now TWANW, Bridget Phillipson and Keir Starmer seem clueless and rudderless, Angela Rayner seems to be mostly TWAW. However, perhaps more importantly huge, Anneliese Dodds seems to wield influence, despite not being a cabinet minister... and is actively and passionately TWAW.

If this committee is a careerist move for the members - I assume so - the path of progression is unfortunately obvious: declare that TWAW, advocate for full acceptance of the conversion therapy Bill as written and a successful career in politics will be yours.

It seems ironic that the best chance of stopping this ridiculous train from running along its inevitable track is Wes Streeting. I say ironic because of his previously expressed views on women who spoke out. Hopefully he's now had a proper epiphany and has realised just how damaging this Bill is for LGB people 🤞

One wonders if any of them have heard of Nicola Sturgeon and what this did for her career...

The truth will out.

Oh FFS 🤦‍♀️

Does no-one in the Commons give a toss about women?

I can’t imagine it’s good for your career in the Labour Party, the Lib Dems, the Greens etc to express GC views - see the shunning of Rosie Duffield, Natalie Bird, Shahrar Ali etc. So I imagine the committee on women’s rights will inevitably attract TWAW types and “I will say whatever you want/whatever the party line is to get promotion” types.

It must be a bit of a poisoned chalice at the moment. It feels like anybody who signs up to this particular committee (unless leaders allocate these positions and people get no say?) must be passionate about one side or the other (TWAW or GC), naive or ignorant.

I am wondering if the Tories are waiting for the outcome of their Leadership election before putting anyone forward for this committee.

ie If KB becomes leader, unlikely she would join this committee - sadly.

But if she doesn't, depending on whether she gets a Shadow Minister post maybe she will.

I can actually believe they wont have anyone. But ...

The Tories will certainly want input on this!

The Women and Equalities Committee examines the work of the Government Equalities Office (GEO). It holds Government to account on equality law and policy, including the Equality Act 2010 and cross Government activity on equalities. It also scrutinises the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Christine Jardine MP Liberal Democrat Edinburgh West is a very ardent TA.

A lot of of the others are pretty new MPs.

Why there are no Tories ? Committee posts are assigned by number of MPs per party so with a Labour landslide they dominate all the committees usually with about 70-80% of the members. There are 26 committees. The Tories have a certain number of committee posts they can trade around which committee to focus on with other opposition parties if they want.

The Tories for whatever reason are MORE interested in getting people on other committees. For instance there are 2 Tories on the Treasury select committee, Home affairs etc. The decision of what committees to prioritise comes down to the Tory whips directly, presumably advised by other senior Tories. If Kemi was in charge she probably would have opted to get one Tory on Women's committee I guess, but who knows the Tories are spread very thin because they lost so badly.

Sarah Owen is awful. I don't know about the rest of them, though. Am I right in thinking the only Black person is David Burton-Sampson?

No idea about his race, but he was a local Pride organiser and very very TRA-adjacent/TWAW/shut up and beeee kiiiiind wims.

If Kemi was in charge she probably would have opted to get one Tory on Women's committee I guess, but who knows the Tories are spread very thin because they lost so badly.

As I said up thread I suspect they are waiting on the outcome of the Tory leadership election.

If KB is elected Tory leader it is highly unlikely she would then be on any committee.

If she is not elected I would imagine / hope that she would take a seat there.

Given how much the Tories played or actually believed the women's sex based rights card, I doubt even they would be that stupid as to not be seen to represented on this committee.

And again as I posted up thread the remit of the Committe is far more than just women's rights. And again, I cant think the Tories would shy away from that.

But given party politics, would not be surprised to be proved wrong.

Thanks to everyone who explained the context and background (how many committees, who is on them, how they're chosen, etc).

I double checked.

There are only 9 members so far which is odd as most committees have 11. However this number is not set in stone you can have committees with less members. So rather than trading out maybe the Tories haven't decided who to elect yet. Which would be odd I think. I thought unless someone resigns there are no new members added later, but I could be wrong.

I still think it is entirely possible the Tory whips preferred to get more members on more "important" committees. I guess will will know very soon as the Tory leadership election is over shortly.

Also I didn't mention this it is important to note committee members have to be backbenchers so they cannot be either Labour ministers or Tory shadow ministers. Even if Jenrick wins he will be offering Kemi a shadow job as the Tories are short of talent. So she will not be going on any committees anyway. I was just suggesting if she was leader she would think this committee would be a priority while other Tories might not.

Also note folks while having MPs on committees is great what is even better is having ministers with actual power like these known supporters of Labour women's declaration who are ministers.

Shabana Mahmood MP, Birmingham Ladywood, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Dame Diana Johnson, MP Hull North & Cottingham, Minister of State (Home Office) - (Minister for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention).
Feryal Clark, MP, Enfield North. Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology - AI and Digital Government
Jess Phillips MP for Birmingham Yardley, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office) - (Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls).

So she will not be going on any committees anyway.

Well if true a real shame.

Irrespective of the topic watching her verbally dissect and illustrate the rubbish from committee members was something of a thrill!

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. Celebrating the early sterilisation of children, insisting that men must be given access to undressed women and demanding that women's sport is dismantled in favour of mediocre male sportsmen's careers is not exactly a vote winner. And there are countless journalists all prepared to expose the lack of thinking, lack of intelligent debate and disordered beliefs that push this nonsense.

It may be a good platform to expose to the public those MPs lacking in intellectual credibility, concern for the welfare of children and concern for women's rights?

I half wonder if this isn't a bad move - if it's deliberate - by the Tories. They can't be linked to any of the insane recommendations that emerge from this Committee. Might be better to let all the crazy happen in one place?

Still no sign of Tory members, but they have started work.

Wednesday 6 November 20242:20pm Public
Tackling non-consensual intimate image abuse - Oral evidence
2:20pm
David Wright (Chief Executive at SWGfL)
Sophie Mortimer (Manager at Revenge Porn Helpline)
3:20pm
Courtney Gregoire (Chief Digital Officer at Microsoft)
Gail Kent (Director of Search for Government Affairs at Google)
(this is an existing review started earlier this year)
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/328/women-and-equalities-committee/news/203550/nonconsensual-intimate-image-abuse-is-current-legislation-protecting-victims/

New just opened

Women's reproductive health conditions Inquiry

In this one-off evidence session the Women and Equalities Committee will explore developments relating to reproductive health conditions following the Women’s Health Strategy for England, including awareness, diagnosis, treatment options, training, and the expansion of women’s health hubs.

Wednesday 13 November 20242:00pm
2:00pm Private
2:30pm Public
Women's reproductive health conditions - Oral evidence
Professor Dame Lesley Regan
Dr Sue Mann
https://committees.parliament.uk/work/8553/womens-reproductive-health-conditions/

From 2022? https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/womens-health-strategy-for-england

Two worthwhile things to tackle, so a promising start.

There are still no Tory representatives on this Committee!

Beginning to wonder what is going on. For any party not to bother to put forward anyone to be on a committee is really strange. This committee overseas all equalities issues.

However, I did hear during a news report that Mims Davies is now the Shadow Minister for Women - althought not mentioned here https://members.parliament.uk/opposition/cabinet

It is mentioned there.

Mims Davies is listed twice: Wales Office (Shadow Secretary of State) and then again the second time that Dept of Education is mentioned, as the Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities.