International Women’s Day

Baroness Thornton Excerpts

Friday 6th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

Noble Sisters and Brothers, I am honoured to follow my friend, the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, who has reminded us all of the price women pay for the misogyny and violence that is still here today in our liberal, democratic society. Every woman’s death means a family is shattered and has to live with the consequences of the murder of their mum, grandma, sister, auntie or friend.

The list read out by the noble Baroness reminds us that this violence, and sexual violence, is visited on women and girls across the world, as has been mentioned by many noble Lords in the debate today. My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary said recently about Sudan:

“The world must not look away. The international community has failed the women of Sudan. The stories of brutal attacks, sexual torture, public rape used as weapons in conflict against fleeing women and children are truly horrendous. This is a war waged on women’s bodies. Yet too often these stories are not heard, and the world turns its back”.


She went on to say:

“The UK is stepping up support for survivors, we will not look away. The world must come together to stem the bloodshed, protect women and girls, and drive urgent momentum towards peace”.


I am very glad that she said that and I am sure that everyone in the House will be, also. But I also share concerns about our aid budget and the effect it will have in these circumstances.

These debates often honour the women, and indeed men, who have fought over millennia for our rights and equality. Sometimes it is our mums and grandmas we honour. Sometimes it is Malala, Mary Wollstonecraft, Fawcett, the Pankhursts, the Matchgirls or Jayaben Desai at Grunwick. I was there on the picket line at Grunwick. We are honouring the women on whose shoulders we stand, and the galaxy of noble Baronesses’ maiden speeches today gladdens my heart: you are all here with us.

I also congratulate my noble friend the Minister on her first International Women’s Day speech. I think it might be my 25th, but I am not absolutely sure. There are years when we have had to fight to have this debate at all. I pay tribute to my noble friend Lady Gale, and indeed other noble Baronesses on Benches across the House, who have had to fight to have this debate. We have sometimes been relegated to late at night, and even to Grand Committee.

I will use my remaining few minutes to honour one of our own, my fellow Bradfordian and honourable friend Naz Shah MP. The book Honoured, which she wrote, tells of being working class and living in poverty, of the racism, and of the punishment of her family under the honour-based system when her father deserted them. Naz wrote:

“My fight started in the womb. I mean, because I was born a girl, my father didn’t pick me up till he had a son”.


She writes of leaving school at 12, forced marriage at 15, bringing up her two siblings when her mother was imprisoned after a life of abuse and coercion and trying to protect her daughter. My friend became a campaigner, and this led her into politics. She has also built a great and successful career for herself to support her family, and she was sustained in her campaigning by Southall Black Sisters. I want to mark how much I admire and credit the work of these sisters over many years.

Before running against George Galloway in Bradford West in 2015, Naz published a blog about her family’s history because, quite rightly, she said that, if she did not own her own story, it was ripe for exploitation. But she was telling it as a campaigner who had fought for her mother. This book tells it in a profoundly personal way. She has lived through these horrors and they have shaped her politics. It is a remarkable read. It is a book that is a testament to the strength and resilience of this woman and, indeed, to many of the women we honour today.

I do not intend to mention George Galloway again, except to say, as someone who went home to Bradford for six weeks to work in Naz’s campaign, it was one of those wonderful moments in politics when we overturned his majority resoundingly. We did it in large measure because women from all our communities in Bradford supported Naz and saw through the misogynistic politics of the then Respect party. In his losing speech at the count, he spoke of “lions and hyenas”—it was a very puzzling speech—but I agreed with Naz, who said, and this is very typical:

“I thought, ‘Get over yourself, mate. You were the pussycat who lapped imaginary milk on Big Brother””.


It is important to honour our sisters in struggle wherever we find them, and that is why today is so important.

Social Media: Non-consensual Sexual Deepfakes

Baroness Thornton Excerpts

Wednesday 14th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

My Lords, from any reasonable reading of the Online Safety Act, X either failed completely to carry out a risk assessment in relation to the potential of its Grok AI tool to create harmful content or, if it did so, it did it in such a totally incompetent way that it might as well not have bothered.

I think that this Government are doing exactly the right thing and that we have given Ofcom the powers. I would like to know as soon as possible about Ofcom— well, that would be good but, in parliamentary terms, it can be rather a stretch. But we do need to have a deadline for when we are going to hear from Ofcom on how quickly it is going to do this.

Nobody has referred yet to the victims of this activity. What help and support can we give to those who are being attacked in this way? What advice is being given to them and by whom, so that they can be effectively supported when these devastating images are created?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

My noble friend is right to raise the extremely important point about victim support and the impact that this has on people. We have seen testimonies and reports of how devastating, degrading and humiliating this experience can be. The Revenge Porn Helpline is doing fantastic work in providing specialist support and help with getting images removed from the internet, and I commend it for that activity.

On the question on the investigation process, the Secretary of State has been clear that she expects an update from Ofcom on next steps as soon as possible and that she expects Ofcom to use its full legal powers. We hope that that will be clear as soon as possible.

Children: Age Verification and Virtual Private Networks

Baroness Thornton Excerpts

Thursday 4th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

I thank the right reverend Prelate for that question. The importance of digital skills and media literacy was highlighted as a recommended area in the curriculum and assessment review, and we will be responding to that. On his point about relationships education, I will have to come back to him.

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

I commend my Government for the action they are taking on the Online Safety Act. It is a bit rich for the party opposite, who dragged their heels for several years, to talk about the implementation of this. I do not know how many noble Lords here would know how to download a VPN and then choose a country which has no age-verification rules. It is clear that there are teenagers who can do this. Is Ofcom researching this? Is it assessing these risks and will it be bringing forward solutions?

Employment Gap: Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, and White, Workforce

Baroness Thornton Excerpts

Thursday 29th June 2023 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Thornton]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the contribution to the economy which could result from closing the employment gap between (1) the Black, Asian and minority ethnic, and (2) white, workforce.

[The Minister of State, Department for Business and Trade (Lord Johnson of Lainston) (Con)]

The employment rate gap is closing. Data for the first quarter of 2023 shows an ethnic minority employment rate of 69.4%, which is a record high and an increase of 1.1 percentage points on the same quarter a year ago. In April, we set out to Parliament the excellent progress we have made in delivering our ambitious Inclusive Britain strategy to tackle unjust racial disparities in education, health, criminal justice and the workplace.

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer. The reward for getting this right and closing the gap between BAME and white employees is huge. Research has shown over many years that this could add billions to the economy. Why is this not a priority for the Treasury, the business community and the Government? It would not only deal with the unfairness for the individuals affected but add hugely to the size of our economy. That is really the point. Please can the Government think big about this and take on board the research from McKinsey and all sorts of places that says that this will grow our economy if we get it right?

[Lord Johnson of Lainston (Con)]

I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, very much for those comments. It is absolutely right that the expected deficit of underutilisation of all groups in this economy is between £20 billion and £30 billion. I draw attention to the fact that 32 of the 74 measures in Inclusive Britain that we put into place have been achieved or are in motion. A huge amount of work is being done to encourage right entry into workplaces following graduation, entrepreneurship, changes in bank lending policies, fundamental mentoring policies and money being put into scholarship programmes. I completely agree with the noble Baroness’s points. This is very much a focus for the Government, and my Secretary of State, Kemi Badenoch, sees it as one of her core priorities.