Kevin Bonavia

All of us in this House—women and men—will have been inspired by individual women, both in and outside our own lives. I have certainly been inspired by many of the contributions made by women Members today, and I have been proud to be part of the minority who are listening and also contributing. I am proud to say that I have become who I am today because of many women in my own life. There are three I want to single out and pay tribute to: my mum, who brought me up, despite many personal challenges in our family; Sister Bernadette of the St Joseph convent school in Malta, who gave me the self-discipline that I hope I still have today; and Patricia Hennessy, who was an inspiring primary school teacher who helped me and so many others to believe in ourselves. I am sure that is why I am here today. I am proud to represent a constituency that has produced so many great women who have not just inspired those around them but made the weather that has brought greater equality for women across the country. Every year, I visit the grave of Lady Constance Lytton in Knebworth Park. She was a suffragette who came from a privileged background but took another name so that her privilege would not give her advantages. She was imprisoned and force-fed. She carved “V” with a hairpin on her chest: V for “Votes for women”. Women got those votes, but she soon lost her life, and every year we pay tribute to her and all the women who gave up so much to get to where we are today. We have so much further to go. We have other great women in Stevenage who are still with us today, including Barbara Follett, one of my predecessors. We are very proud of our Barbara, who helped to found the Labour Women’s Network. I stand next to my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Ms Oppong-Asare), who has been a stalwart there herself, because Barbara helped to lead the way. Much of the composition of the House is down to her hard work. Not only that, but she has improved the appearance of many of us in this House; I myself have been Folletted by Barbara, so I give her special thanks for that. Baroness Sharon Taylor in the other place was the leader of Stevenage council for 16 years, and is now doing great things as a Minister in this Government, improving housing for so many people. Housing is what gives women a much better quality of life. Those women are trailblazers, but in my town we have other great women. Our deputy council leader, Jeannette Thomas, is leading the housing revolution in Stevenage. We have a mayor of Asian background, Councillor Nazmin Chowdhury, who with grace and understanding exemplifies the best of women in Stevenage. Finally, our youth mayor, Charlotte Gregory, has been shadowing me in this place this week. She also helped to put together my notes for this speech, not all of which I can use, unfortunately. I thank Charlotte for being an exemplar of the future of women in our town and our country. May there be many more like her to come. I will not talk about the great things the Government are doing—I will let the Minister set some of that out—but I fully support our mission to halve violence against women and girls in the coming years. It is a lot of hard work. We have to keep pushing at it, and I will support that all the way. Trying to get equality for women is not a zero-sum game; it is good for us all. It is good for men too. We all benefit from equality for women. I am proud to have taken part in this debate, and will fight for equality with every breath, inside and outside this place.