International Women’s Day

Baroness Barran Excerpts

Friday 6th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to speak in this debate and I, too, thank the noble Baroness, Lady Lloyd, for securing it. It is an unusual debate because it feels really quite personal. Not only are all of we, noble Lords and Baronesses, in the room but, on many occasions, our mothers, grandmothers and other significant women in our lives are here in spirit.

I start by acknowledging the excellent maiden speeches. The noble Baroness, Lady Nargund, talked about justice, equality and service in her family not just being aspirations, but her reality. That, I think, resonated with all of us. She also mentioned that compassion must be matched by competence. I say “Hear, hear” to that.

The noble Baroness, Lady Linforth, talked about her tea-making skills and her ability to spot errant nonsense a mile away. I urge her to focus on the second, rather than the first. I was also relieved to hear that being asked to do ludicrous things is a cross-party phenomenon.

The noble Baroness, Lady MacLeod of Camusdarach, will bring great value to the House. It was a joy to listen to her make the case for the importance of high-quality journalism in a world of misinformation and fake news. She also painted the most beautiful picture of life in the Highlands, an area that I am incredibly fond of, and the importance of the Gaelic language.

I felt that the speech by the noble Baroness, Lady Martin, was an example in real modesty. It was incredibly self-effacing. She got to almost the end of it without mentioning herself and focused on others throughout. I predict that, in her focus on economic growth and the role of women in that, she may form alliances with my noble friend Lady Brady in putting her foot on the accelerator of progress.

Last, but definitely not least, I welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Paul, with her focus on working-class boys and the importance of education. She talked about learning from the House and I felt very much that we would be learning from her. I just wanted to say to all the noble Baronesses that we really do try work in a cross-party way in this House, which is often when we do our best work. I hope that they will move forward in that spirit.

Finally, like the noble Baroness, Lady Caine, I acknowledge the earliest women who joined your Lordships’ house following the Life Peerages Act, the first maiden speech being made by Katharine Elliot, Baroness Elliot of Harwood, who acknowledged the trepidation we all feel when making our maiden speech. She said that she had

“always found in life that if there is something difficult to do it does not get any easier when you do not do it but put it off”.—[Official Report, 4/11/1958; col. 161.]

She sounds like a great addition to the House. She also noted that, with the exception of Her Majesty’s opening of Parliament, hers was the first occasion in 900 years that the voice of a woman had been heard in your Lordships’ House.

Turning to the extraordinary speeches that we have heard across all Benches, the theme which ran through all of them was one of fairness and equality of opportunity in public life, which is dear to the hearts of all of us who are privileged enough to sit in your Lordships’ House. I acknowledge the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, and the work of the Jo Cox Foundation. As a former Minister of Loneliness, I was fortunate to work a bit with the foundation and meet Jo’s parents. Her focus on respect and trust in public life is needed perhaps more today than when she advocated for it.

I am sure that I speak on behalf of all the House in acknowledging the contribution from the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton. She is an extraordinary role model of courage, talent and professionalism on behalf of disabled women. I also mention my noble friend Lady Davies of Devonport’s speech. She made such a strong case for the importance of inclusion of women in sport, including those with almost no talent. I was extremely relieved to know that I was on the team.

There was also, quite rightly, a big focus among your Lordships on the importance of women’s contribution to the economy: from the Minister, my noble friend Lady Bloomfield, the noble Baroness, Lady Hunter of Auchenreoch, who is not in her place, and my noble friend Lady Brady. I was slightly appalled that we have not even hit the starting gun as women in terms of our 72 free days of work and absolutely support her call to accelerate action. I thank very much my noble friend Lady Morrissey for her work supporting the careers of women. I am sure that, with her leadership, it will soon be two steps forward and maybe not even one backwards.

Rightly, we also heard very powerful voices in relation to the situation internationally. We all think of the women in Iran and Afghanistan in particular, but we also heard, sadly, including from the noble Baroness, Lady Nye, of cases in many other countries around the world. We were surrounded by such authority from my noble friends Lord Ahmad, Lady Sugg, Lord Bates and Lady Hodgson, the noble Baronesses, Lady D’Souza and Lady Goudie, and the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, among others. The point made at the outset of this debate by the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, that gender equality is elusive and can slip away from us, was echoed by my noble friend Lady Sugg. The noble Baroness spoke in relation to education and my noble friend in relation to health. Importantly, my noble friends Lord Ahmad and Lady Hodgson spoke of the terrible curse of sexual violence in conflict. The Government will have heard the calls for more action on these issues from across the House.

I commend my noble friend, as I think she is—she was outside the House and I am hoping she still is—the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, for reading the names of the women who have lost their lives, having been killed by men known to them. I had hoped to recruit her for the APPG for parliamentarians with weak tear ducts, but she did so extraordinarily bravely today that I am afraid she is no longer eligible.

Many noble Lords talked about the attitudes which underpin violence against women and girls. These are perhaps exemplified, if that is the right word, most horrifically by Jeffrey Epstein, but also by the courage of women such as Gisèle Pelicot to reject that. We heard from my noble friend Lady Verma about the importance of addressing violence against women and girls, and from the noble Baroness, Lady Gohir, about the particular impact on Muslim women.

I was struck by the huge focus from many of your Lordships on online harm, and particularly the impact on young women. That included child sexual abuse material online, which the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Llanfaes, talked about, and the pornification that, as my noble friend Lady Jenkins said, is silently creeping into our children’s lives, and of course the risk of radicalisation, which the noble Baroness, Lady Paul, referred to.

I want to end on a slightly personal note and mention one woman who I think we all miss, Baroness Newlove. She was a tireless campaigner in relation to crime and the criminal justice system and victims, who died within the last year. I want to mention briefly the women in this House on my Benches—there are many around the House—who have inspired me, including my noble friends Lady Bertin and Lady Owen, who have campaigned tirelessly on the most difficult subjects. I want to mention my noble friend Lady Jenkin, who has done so much to bring women into public and political life, and has the most incredible nose for what the next issue that will gain momentum will be. If she says to you, “I’m getting interested in X”, my advice is be interested in X. A former colleague of mine, the honourable Member for Lowestoft, Jess Asato, has suffered the most terrible abuse online. I pay tribute to her courage in dealing with it.

Finally, like many noble Lords, I have spent a lot of time outside this House in recent months working on the risks that social media poses to women and girls and to young boys. I thank and acknowledge the inspiration I have received from the groups working on it, including Health Professionals for Safer Screens, Generation Focus and SafeScreens, and in particular my “smartphone ban” WhatsApp group—it wakes me up in the morning with cheerful messages, and I often go to sleep reading the last message. They have been tireless, constructive, honest and brave throughout.

Most importantly, I acknowledge the parents who have lost children as a result of social media: Esther Ghey, mother of Brianna; Ellen Roome, mother of Jools; Hollie Dance, mother of Archie; Mariano Janin, father—the honorary mother in this context—of Mia; Lorin LaFave Gordon, mother of Breck; and Lisa Kenevan, mother of Isaac. We give a voice to them in this House, and we all know that it is the most enormous privilege.

To go back to the first women Peers in this House, they were described as

“making history without unduly disturbing it”.

I hope that noble Lords—new and less new—will go on making history and will disturb it as much as is needed.