LWD Statement on Postponement of National Women’s Conference

[IwantToRetire]

(I am sure there is a thread about Labour postponing the Women's Conference, but cant find it. So happy is someone adds the link to the thread.)

the postponement of this National Women’s Conference 2025 “pending a wider review of positive action measures” is short-sighted and wrong. Many other women in the Party share our dismay at this decision.

The Annual Women’s Conference is constitutionally the policy-making Party event which focuses on issues specifically affecting women. As a result of this postponement, women members have been denied the right to put forward two conference policy motions to this year’s Annual Conference and to elect new representatives on the National Women’s Committee, which is constitutionally responsible for overseeing the overall direction of the Labour Party Women’s Organisation, including the Annual Labour Party Women’s Conference.

Along with many women in the Party, both within and beyond our own networks, we continue to call for a two-day stand-alone annual policy-making Women’s Conference to be held each Spring, in line with our Party’s rule book: “There shall be an Annual Labour Party Women’s Conference which shall wherever practicable be held in the spring”.

Part of a much longer statement at https://labourwomensdeclaration.org.uk/lwd-statement-on-postponement-of-national-womens-conference/

Well done LWD and come on Keir.

Some insiders even claim that because of the magnitude of the impact of the Supreme Court ruling on Labour, party figures are working behind the scenes to undermine it.

“An interesting aspect of this is because Labour is one of the few political parties which has extensive positive actions policies for women in terms of lists and quotas and women’s branches, women’s officers etc, it is more heavily impacted by the Supreme Court ruling,” says one source.

Another claims: “The Labour Party will push through the fully trans inclusive conversion therapy Bill as well as the data Bill, which is effectively self-identity. There are many LGBT+ Labour activists running the show who have very serious influence at Labour Party HQ and they’re invested in achieving LGBT+ aims. Worse is yet to come.”

<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/mt8T9/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/19/labour-defeated-third-time-ai-plans-creative-industries/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Labour’s data Bill, which is in its final stages before becoming law, will allow people to prove their identity and facts about themselves by using a new voluntary Government app. Women’s rights campaigners have been warning ministers that the legislation will play havoc with the ability of companies such as gym chains and public bodies like the NHS and police to ascertain someone’s sex – just after the Supreme Court ruling intended to bring much-needed clarity.

Dee McCullogh, a member of Lesbian Labour, says that the division and tension within the party needs to be tackled from the top – putting the spotlight on Starmer.

“For 15 years the law has been incorrectly administered and finally we have some clarity – which is great – but then the Labour Party has a knee-jerk response [by cancelling the women’s conference] and it feels like a kick in the stomach,” she says. “It’s like saying to women: ‘Yes of course you can play football but you can’t have any matches’. It’s so insulting.

“This whole thing has been about capitulation to the bullying from a loud group of trans activists, not the tiny percentage of people with genuine gender dysphoria. Lesbians in particular were central to the Supreme Court ruling and no one has apologised to us for the distress and harms caused to lesbians, who, over the last 15 years have lost our community and single sex spaces.

“The Government really needs to clamp down on this bullying. You can’t have MPs and people within the judiciary saying they are not going to follow the law. What sort of democracy can you run if people are simply going to say they know the speed limit is 30mph but they are going to drive at 60mph anyway? The Labour leadership needs to listen to its membership, not just the bullies because as You Gov polls show, the majority of people agree with the Supreme Court decision.”

https://archive.is/mt8T9 from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/23/trans-war-tearing-labour-party-apart/

Thankyou IwantToRetire that’s a great piece.

It looks like #nodebate is still very much the culture. Most of the population; most people who vote Labour; even most members of the Labour Party (in my experience) agree with the SC ruling. Yet, the Labour government looks set, not to address the ‘offending’ legislation head on - far too public - but undermine it in other ways. At the same time they will silence women.

I don’t actually believe that cancelling the conference is about the violent reaction of a few men. If the leadership of the Labour Party was fully bought in to women’s rights, they’d be happy to take that on. But they aren’t.

How to address something which is so utterly anti-democratic and discriminatory?

If the leadership of the Labour Party was fully bought in to women’s rights, they’d be happy to take that on.

I dont know which is worse.
That the have been "intimidated".
That they dont want to be seen to be "taking sides".
That they dont want to support the Government appointed EHRC
That they dont want to support women in the Labour Party.

I think the last is the scariest, because it implies of all the different factions in the Labour Party, the one they are least concerned about is women.