I feel the need to say that I will be brief and then just talk for as long as possible, just because I would not like to revert to type. I wish to speak specifically to new clause 100, which is principally in the name of my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman). I would like to start by saying how grateful she and I are to the 64 colleagues who have added their names in support of it. That shows the real strength of feeling and concern in the House on this issue. It has already been mentioned by some of my hon. Friends, and I shall go into it in more detail.
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Despite the assurances we have had from Ministers and the Prime Minister herself, very real concerns remain about the potential impact of leaving the European Union on women’s rights and about the Government’s intention of defending them. The new clause addresses that in four key areas. The first is employment rights and protections derived from EU legislation.
We know that the rights of part-time workers and pregnant women at work, as well as—we have seen many different cases about this—the right to equal pay for work of equal value, derived in the EU. The Government’s White Paper argues that we have more generous maternity leave systems here in the UK than are required at EU level, and that is absolutely correct—yes, we do. What I would say to the people in this room about that is, “You are very welcome,” because it was the Labour Government that introduced those things. Specifically, it was my right hon. and learned Friend and other women who sit in this Chamber with me today who fought for those rights.
At the moment, we have something that is better than what exists in the EU, but we have seen in many of the different global changes in the past few days—I was going to say months—how easily women’s rights can be undone when our global alliances begin to fail.