I‘m appalled by my party’s stance on trans rights,” says Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, over the ban on puberty blockers and the government’s response to the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman.
“At the current rate the government is going, our legacy will be continuing the rollbacks of trans rights that began with the Conservatives,” she adds. It’s a stark contrast to the previous Labour government, who “introduced the Equality Act, the Gender Recognition Act, paved the way for legalising same sex marriage and equalised the age of consent. Whatever other criticisms I and others may have of the last Labor government, it does have a record it can be proud of on LGBT+ rights”.
It’s such a prominent topic, that Whittome’s been asked many times by her constituents if she thinks about leaving the party, or if the Labour party – founded by the trade union movement, as a party for the working class – no longer serves her and her beliefs. Yet, for Whittome, walking away would achieve little more than momentary gratification. Instead, from within the party she can push for change, while still representing the voices of her constituents, despite many telling her they won’t vote Labour again.
It’s a heavy task for Whittome, yet it’s within her blood. “I’ve been an activist in my community since I was 16. It was growing up under Tory austerity and suffering the impact of that, which made me angry. Then I realised that we have power as individuals when we come together.”
Whittome says she’s “really proud that this government’s pledged to half violence against women and girls,” but thinks that the increasing attacks on trans women in the news, the courts and on TV, which are “rooted in very archaic and misogynistic ideology,” are harmful for all women. “If we’re continuing to marginalise and scapegoat trans people, especially trans women, as a threat to other women, that means we’re not focusing on the real problem – men who are violent. The number of male violence offenses of stalking, harassment, sexual assault and domestic violence have grown by 37 per cent in the past five years. Trans people, particularly trans women, are far, far more likely to be victims,” she says.
Now at 28, she’s served as an MP for six years, where she was the youngest MP aged just 22 until Samuel Carling took the title last year. Being such a young MP was “a baptism of fire” and an “alien world”, where she was “even more than most MPs, thrown in at the deep end”. Of course it was a “huge privilege and a huge responsibility,” as well. “I’d be given a huge mandate by my constituents, my community, to represent them, after campaigning on workers rights, a green deal, treating migrants and people seeking asylum with compassion and humanity, racial, social and economic justice”.
At the time, Whittome says she got a lot of “you don’t have the life experience” and “you don’t know what you’re talking about”, which she felt meant she had to prove that wasn’t the case. Though she thinks young people do have a lot of life experience, as they grew up under austerity. “We lived the consequences of the political decisions of successive conservative governments. What better life experience than that?”. She recognises there’s “a vicious cycle of political parties not having a good political offer for young people,” as they dont’ vote as much as older people. “Then political parties feel that they don’t need to have a political offer for them,” and instead focus on their key voters, likely older people, who often are retired and have their own home. Though she adds the importance of having all ages which “represents the makeup of the country”.
As well as representing her constituents, Whittome also wants to be on the same level as them, and feels an MP’s annual salary (currently £93,904) doesn’t represent that. “MPs representing workers’ interests shouldn’t be on salaries that massively separate us from the people we represent.”
She’s keen to note that she’s not saying “MPs, don’t work hard, or that we don’t deserve our salaries,” but acknowledges that everyone works hard “firefighters, teaching assistants, HCAs (health care assistants), they all work hard,” she adds.
To reflect this, when she first became an MP, Whittome redistributed a large chunk of her salary within her local area “as we’ve got loads of really amazing community projects” and donated a large portion to local charities, organisations and strike funds, taking home £35,000 after tax. She still does the same, but after five years has just increased her take home figure to £41,000.
Despite the UK having 650 MPs, donating such a chunk of their salary is a rarity. In the Eighties, MP for Coventry South East, Dave Nellis also donated 54 per cent of his salary for the same reasons. Ellie Chowns, recently elected as North Herefordshire’s Green MP is also donating a large portion of hers too, saying it’s too much. While former Reform MP Rupert Lowe (who had the party whip removed in March and now is an independent for Great Yarmouth) donates his entire salary, as he’s estimated to be worth around £30m, harking back to previous centuries when MPs weren’t paid as they were mostly aristocrats and didn’t need a salary.
But Whittome is full of positivity for the future. She’s keen to make progress, which she says is incorrectly “always thought of as being linear,” and wishes that “we weren’t just fighting to roll back the rollbacks”.
“I want to see the government finally delivering a trans inclusive conversion therapy ban, to improve access to fertility treatment for lesbian couples, who in most parts of the country are having to self fund at least six cycles before they’re eligible for IVF treatment on the NHS. I want us to be tackling the housing crisis, low pay and workers rights, because members of our community are disproportionately affected by poverty and homelessness. These are things that would improve everyone’s lives.”
A few years ago, she says, “we would have been able to talk about these issues, but because the focus is on firefighting, we’ve gone backwards. Now, we’re not in the position of even getting the basics right”.
