International Women’s Day

Baroness Linforth Excerpts

Friday 6th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Linforth (Lab) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords —and I add “My Ladies” too in this International Women’s Day debate—I feel very humble standing in this Chamber speaking for the first time.

In my 47 years working for the Labour Party, including organising Conference and events, I have visited and worked with thousands of different venues and their staff across our land, from small community centres, big conference venues, hospitals, schools, sports stadiums and more. But none was so grand and intimidating as arriving at the House of Lords. I was introduced on 2 February and since then have felt incapable of putting one foot in front of the other without asking for help and guidance.

My friends and family who joined me on that day have said that everyone was so kind and could not have been more helpful. So I take this opportunity to thank all the staff, including the doorkeepers, the caterers, the security staff, all House authorities, Black Rod and the Clerk of Parliaments for being so generous with their time, advice and patience. I thank my supporters, my noble friends Lord Reid of Cardowan and Lady Rebuck, both of whom are inspirations to me and have supported me during my career in the Labour Party. As the longest-serving member of Labour Party staff, I wonder how a girl from Redland in the city of Bristol, educated at St Bede’s comprehensive in Lawrence Weston and then Filton technical college got here.

I started my working career at the Bristol regional office as a clerk typist. My first instruction there was that I was to make the tea at 10 am, 11 am and 3 pm. As well as being my first instruction from my bosses at work, it was my first experience of stopping errant nonsense driven by men within the Labour Party. The tea routine soon stopped.

I have spent my whole life working for the Labour Party, and most of the teams I have managed have been predominantly of women—brilliant women, hard-working women and ambitious women. I have lost count of the number of people who have passed through my teams and gone on to do the most amazing things. I acknowledge those women in all parties who work tirelessly behind the scenes, ensuring that their parties get elected and remain in power. Politics is a very unforgiving profession and I take my hat off to all of them.

I pay tribute to my dear departed friend Margaret McDonagh—Baroness McDonagh—who had such an influence on me and many other Labour women. As our first female general secretary, she had to be tough, assertive and straightforward, but she was always supportive of everyone, especially women, working to make Labour electable once again. She absolutely dragged me out of my comfort zone and made me do things I never imagined I could do.

That was rather like my own feisty French mother, who left her rural village in the south of France and came to this country in 1957 to learn to speak English. She worked as a psychiatric nurse in the mother and baby care unit in Bristol, where she met my father. They lived in Redland, where I was brought up. They even managed an entente cordiale during that period.

We are just two years away from 2028 and the 100th anniversary of all women receiving the vote, when their voting age became 21—the same as for men at the time. The year 2028 also marks the 70th anniversary of women being allowed to become Peers and sit in the House of Lords. The equal franchise Act of 1928 enabled 15 million women to be able to vote for the first time in our democracy. Many of these were working-class women. Sadly, like so many women today, they were time-poor, working in low-paid jobs, and balancing that with caring for their families in the home.

In the 1979 general election, the first after I started work, there were just 19 women MPs elected—11 of them were Labour. Happily, all of that has changed thanks to the talent and determination of many people I have worked with and others. As the noble Baroness said, the 2024 general election returned the highest number and proportion of female MPs ever recorded, at 263, or 40% of all MPs elected. It is worth repeating again. Two more women have been elected at by-elections since then. I am proud that 190 of those women MPs are Labour. Despite this progress, I encourage all parties to ensure that we have 50:50 parity in Parliament by the next election. It is very important that we ensure our Parliament is representative of the people we seek to serve.

Unfortunately, still not enough has changed. Women still carry out the lion’s share of childcare and the vast majority of unpaid care. We have all seen at first hand women juggling multiple roles, and looking after their children and elderly parents too. It means that for many talented, clever, hard-working women, choices are constrained. They end up working part-time, often in low-paid jobs and below their skills level, hence we still have a persistent gender pay gap and are wasting these fantastic women’s talents. Even when both parents work full-time, women spend 40% more time caring for children.

The recent TUC report said that the gender pay gap remains at 12.8% and that, on average, women are missing out on £2,548 per year. This makes women the poorest pensioners too. It has a massive long-term detrimental impact on women’s lives. We need to see a culture change in the workplace and in politics, enabling more women to participate on an equal footing with men. I look forward to the Employment Rights Act changes, which will introduce mandatory gender pay and menopause action plans, enhance flexible working regulations, and strengthen protections against dismissal for pregnant workers and those returning from maternity leave.

On this celebration of International Women’s Day, I acknowledge that progress has been made, but there is still so much to do. As Sylvia Pankhurst said:

“Great is the work that remains to be accomplished”.