Free childcare should be provided to parents of all children aged over nine months, Britain’s newest political party said yesterday at its launch.
The Women’s Equality Party, which has already attracted 45,000 members and supporters spread among 65 branches since it was founded six months ago, also called for the introduction of political quotas at the next two general elections to achieve a balanced parliament by 2025.
At least 66 per cent of new MPs and 75 per cent of new peers must be women to create balance in both chambers, according to Sophie Walker, the party’s leader. “Men outnumber women in parliament by two to one,” she said.
The party also wants quotas to be implemented for women on boards and for the married tax allowance to be scrapped, with the savings from it reinvested into rape crisis centres.
Speaking at the launch event in London yesterday morning, Ms Walker was flanked on stage by the party founders Sandi Toksvig, the comedian and presenter, and Catherine Mayer, a journalist.
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She said that the WE is “not a special interest party. Women are half the population”.
The party will stand its first candidates next spring, she said, when local, London mayoral, and Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly elections will take place.
Explaining the party’s policy for government-funded childcare for all children from nine months old, she said there are “at least 600,000 women in Britain who would prefer to work, if they could afford to do so. WE wants women to realise their potential.
“WE believes that government-funded childcare should be available for all children from the end of paid parental leave at nine months, and WE believes this is a key area for government investment. WE would fully fund this by introducing a single rate of tax relief on pension savings, which would free up around six and a half billion pounds.”