Women and Girls: Isle of Wight

Joe Robertson Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd December 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mr Quigley]

I thank the hon. Member for raising an important point. The numbers he mentioned should certainly terrify us all. Someone going through 50 incidents of abuse before reporting it is the hidden story. I thank him for his intervention and agree entirely with his point.

The barriers are exacerbated by our poor cross-Solent connectivity, which restricts access to training, higher education and employment beyond the island. One of the Government’s key ambitions is to ensure that every child gets the best possible start in life, but if we are serious about making that a reality for children on the Isle of Wight, additional support is essential. For some girls—and boys—born there, the cost of cross-Solent travel means they have never left the island. That is a missed opportunity to experience the wider world and broaden their horizons.

I am pleased to have worked with the ferry companies to introduce an initiative offering free ferry travel for West Wight residents on their 18th birthday, but two return tickets alone cannot tackle the deeper challenges they face. Unless we address the barriers head on, we risk limiting not only their access to education, but their aspirations and future opportunities.

This year’s GCSE and A-level results paint a stark picture. As the Isle of Wight Observer put it, students on the island face an “uphill battle”. Our local performance has fallen significantly below national outcomes across key benchmarks, placing it at the very bottom of the national rankings. Just 62.5% of students achieved a standard pass of grade 4 or above, compared with the national average of 70.5%. Every one of the statistics puts the island at the bottom among English counties.

Although I am speaking about education broadly, this is fundamentally an issue of equality, not only between island and mainland students, but in ensuring that girls have the tools, confidence and opportunities to pursue any education or career path they aspire to.

[Joe Robertson (Isle of Wight East) (Con)]

I congratulate my constituency neighbour on securing this debate and highlighting the issues, and thank him for his ongoing work to help to make the island a better place to live for women and girls. I associate myself with all his remarks and arguments. Policymakers and commissioners have often overlooked the unique challenges that we face as an island. I urge the current Government, although it would be true of any Government, to remember the challenges we face and to be prepared to make special provision for us, because we are a populated island in England, which is a unique thing.

[Mr Quigley]

It will come as no great surprise to hear that the hon. Member and I agree on many things. Despite our opposition politically, as family MPs on the Isle of Wight we share many frustrations with the limitations of being on an island. I thank the hon. Member for his intervention.

All too often, the opportunities feel harder for girls to access, which is something we must change. Educational outcomes are not an abstract issue for women and girls on the island: they shape their entire future. Although jobs in hospitality and retail exist on the island, I worry about the young women for whom those sectors hold little appeal. Too often they feel that meaningful opportunities and long-term careers are out of reach. I am aware that that is not an unusual feeling for young people but, as I have set out, due to a variety of factors, young girls on the island may feel that the opportunities are still further from them. That is why targeted support for girls leaving education on the Isle of Wight, helping them to access a wider range of career paths, would make a real and lasting difference.

The picture I have painted today may seem like a story of lost opportunities for the island’s women and girls, but I want to end on a different note. I want to celebrate the resilience and ambition of the women and girls I have had the privilege to meet as an MP. As I am sure my colleague from the other side of the island would agree, the bright and confident students, the determined businesswomen, and the mothers, sisters and daughters on the island all demonstrate that women and girls on the Isle of Wight do not lack drive or aspiration. What they lack is the support to turn their ambition into opportunity, whether through access to medical care when they need it or through meaningful job prospects when they leave school. With the right backing from the Government, I truly believe they can not only reach those opportunities but thrive in them.

Women on the Isle of Wight are among the bravest, smartest and funniest people I know—and that is not just because my wife, who is one of them, is watching. They understand the added challenges that come with living on an island. Some extra burdens are to be expected, but the burden we are placing on them now is a burden too far. Whether it is in respect of healthcare inequalities, domestic abuse, limited job opportunities, or the combination of all those factors, the women and girls of the island deserve better, and I will keep fighting to make sure that they get it.