Seema Malhotra, Labour and Co-operative MP for Feltham and Heston, has used a piece in the Daily Mirror to argue the case for why women should be negotiating Brexit.

Seema argued that with a staggering 86% of net gains to the Treasury through tax and benefit changes since 2010 at the expense of women, the Tory government is systematically biased.  Alongside other MPs, Seema Malhotra has written to the Prime Minister asking her to address this bias in the negotiations.

Seema said “Brexit negotiations will need women’s voices, on mainstream issues like the economy as well as on directly addressing the concerns of the gender pay gap, the wider representation of women in top positions across all industries and maintaining our workplace rights, much of which are underpinned by EU legislation.

A watering down of workers’ rights would impact women the most, from maternity leave to discrimination in the workplace.

European Union funding will need to be matched or kept, as many EU social programmes directly help women in need by, for example addressing violence against women and girls but also women in jobs who are more likely to be under-employed and women in entrepreneurship.”