Stephen Morgan MP has marked International Women’s Day 2023 by calling on the government to back plans to support Portsmouth women in business.
In Departmental Questions to the Women and Equalities Minister, the city MP highlighted that new businesses are almost three times as likely to be started by men as by women, and less than 5% of venture funding currently goes to female founders.
Mr Morgan asked if the Minister agrees with Labour’s plan to work with the British Business Bank to support female and ethnic minority founders to fulfil their ambitions and grow their businesses.
A Labour government would give the British Business Bank greater independence to invest in fast-growing companies and introduce a New Deal for Working People to open up and improve workplaces for women.
International Women’s Day is a day to celebrate the progress we have made in the pursuit of women’s equality and the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also raises awareness of existing issues in society and calls for positive change to accelerate gender parity.
Labour’s New Deal for Working People, announced by Deputy Leader Angela Rayner, will introduce a raft of reforms to transform women’s working lives by:
-
- Banning zero-hour contracts and fire and rehire.
- Ensuring all working women are afforded the same basic rights, including sick pay, holiday pay, maternity pay and leave, protection against unfair dismissal and sexual harassment.
- Implementing flexible working as a day one right.
- Permitting equal pay comparisons across employers where men and women carry out comparable work.
- Introducing paid carers’ leave to support women with unpaid care.
- Enforcing gender and ethnicity pay gap reporting
- Strengthening redundancy protections for pregnant women
- Reforming the failing shared parental leave system
- Ensuring outsourced workers are included in gender pay gap reporting
- Requiring employers to create and maintain workplaces free from harassment.
The Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South, Stephen Morgan MP, said:
“It’s shocking that in 2023 new businesses are almost three times as likely to be started by men as by women, and less than 5% of venture funding goes to female founders.
“More needs to be done to inspire more female entrepreneurs like those I meet regularly in Portsmouth whose creativity and ambition are inspiring to so many.
“Labour’s New Deal for Working People would support female founders fulfil their ambitions by putting women at the heart of our economic recovery.”
Mr Morgan will be attending the Inspirational Women of Portsmouth Awards this weekend to celebrate local female community leaders and entrepreneurs. He will also continue supporting equality issues in Parliament including by raising awareness of the women against state pension inequality campaign.
You can watch Stephen’s question to the Minister here.
