Labour claims Reform UK won’t protect ladies, as poll suggests Farage’s party heading for ‘seismic’ wins in May
Good morning. Wes Streeting, the well being secretary, is publishing a revised ladies’s well being technique for England in the present day. As Andrew Gregory studies, the technique implicitly accepts that girls have been let down by a (largely male) medical institution which has not at all times taken their well being considerations severely.
But, for Labour, this isn’t only a well being announcement. The English native elections are simply over three weeks away, and Labour is utilizing this announcement as a platform to assault Reform UK, saying that Nigel Farage’s party can’t be trusted to face up for ladies.
Labour HQ has despatched out a briefing observe backing up this declare with this listing of 10 the reason why is says Reform will not be on the facet of girls. For the file, right here is the listing in full.
1. Reform wish to reopen the talk on abortion limits
Nigel Farage has described the present 24-week abortion restrict as “utterly ludicrous” and referred to as for Parliament to revisit it – elevating considerations about rolling again long-established reproductive rights.
2. Reform figures have questioned ladies’s bodily autonomy
Senior Reform determine, Danny Kruger MP, has argued that girls wouldn’t have an “absolute right” over their very own our bodies in the context of abortion, undermining a basic precept of girls’s healthcare and rights.
3. Reform would scrap the Equality Act
Suella Braverman MP, Reform’s equalities spokeswoman, has pledged to repeal the Equality Act – eradicating key authorized protections towards intercourse discrimination in workplaces, companies and public life.
4. Reform have hyperlinks to anti-abortion campaigns
Farage has accepted fee to talk at occasions linked to anti-abortion teams, whereas candidates with related views are standing for the party – elevating considerations concerning the route of journey.
5. Reform would roll again office protections
Plans to scrap the Employment Rights Act would put in danger protections for maternity go away, office discrimination and job safety – undermining progress made for ladies at work.
6. Reform would convey again the two-child profit restrict
This coverage disproportionately impacts ladies, significantly single moms, pushing households into poverty and limiting monetary help for kids.
7. Reform figures have made regressive feedback about ladies at work
Farage has beforehand backed claims that employers keep away from hiring ladies due to maternity rights – echoing outdated attitudes that penalise ladies for having households.
8. Reform figures have criticised breastfeeding in public
Farage has prompt ladies shouldn’t breastfeed in a means that’s “openly ostentatious” – policing ladies’s behaviour in public areas.
9. Reform has platformed and defended controversial figures
Farage has described Andrew Tate as an “important voice for men”, regardless of widespread concern about misogyny and the influence of such views on younger folks.
10. Reform’s file on violence towards ladies raises severe considerations
The party is contemplating bringing again former MP James McMurdock, who was jailed for assaulting his then-girlfriend.
Commenting on this, Anna Turley, the Labour chair, stated:
Today Labour is taking motion to repair a system that has too usually ignored ladies – slicing ready lists, enhancing care and placing ladies’s voices on the centre.
But Reform’s file speaks for itself. From attacking reproductive rights to undermining protections at work, they merely can’t be trusted to face up for ladies.
Reform UK has been approached for a remark. I’ll submit it once I get a reply.
Farage might be extra in the Telegraph splash. It studies the findings of a poll by JL Partners which, as effectively as saying Labour is on track to lose energy in Wales (no shock), additionally says “Labour is also facing a Reform rout across England, with the near-total collapse of the Red Wall and the loss of stronghold councils held since the 1970s.”
James Johnson, the co-founder of JL Partners, advised the Telegraph:
If these outcomes come to move, we will probably be taking a look at a serious political earthquake throughout Britain.
It might be the worst native election ever for Labour in England, a collapse for the Conservatives in their historic Blue Wall heartlands, and a brutal third place for Starmer’s party in Wales.
One can not overstate how seismic that outcome in Wales can be – it’s a place that has stayed Labour even in the party’s darkest days. Plaid Cymru, the SNP, and the Greens are all contributing to this, however it’s Reform that appears set to be the actual story, probably transferring into opposition in Wales and securing England councils throughout the nation.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Russell Findlay, the Scottish Tory chief, holds a marketing campaign occasion on postal voting. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour chief, is doing a separate occasion at 10am on maternity companies, and John Swinney, the primary minister and SNP chief, is campaigning in South Ayrshire at 2pm.
10am: Wes Streeting, the well being secretary, is on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour talking concerning the authorities’s ladies’s well being technique, forward of talking at a proper launch at 11am.
11am: Zack Polanski, the Green party chief, speaks at a Green occasion about ending the “normalisation” of meals financial institution use.
Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
3.15pm (UK time): Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, speaks at a CBNC occasion in Washington, the place she is attending IMF spring summit conferences. She additionally has a gathering sooner or later together with her US counterpart, Scott Bessent.
3.45pm (UK time): John Healey, the defence secretary, is predicted to talk at a press convention in Berlin after a gathering of fellow defence ministers from the Ukraine Defence Contact Group.
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