The Women’s Equality Party (WE) won 350,000 votes in Scotland, Wales and London, beating George Galloway in the London Mayoral race last week it has been revealed.
WE was launched in 2015 by TV presenter Sandi Toksvig and author Catherine Meyer, to shed light on issues such as equal pay, access to childcare and ending violence against women.
Running for Mayor was the Leader of the Women’s Equality Party Sophie Walker, who scored 5.2% of the total mayoral vote. Votes for the party equated to one in 20 Londoners.
Walker said: “I am delighted and proud that so many people threw their support behind us. WE have run a positive and imaginative campaign, and the results are clear to see. For a party that only opened its doors for membership last July – ten months ago – WE are off to an extremely strong start.”
Walker told the Independent that WE”s campaigning had put pressure on the newly elected Mayor Sadiq Khan to prioritise such issues in his own campaign.. In March Khan said he would be a “proud feminist” in City Hall and has pledged to close the gender pay gap. He has also pledge to increase police presence on public transport to lower the number of sexual assaults.
In addition she also led an 11-strong list of candidates for the London wide list on the Greater London Assembly. The Greater London Authority (GLA) is a top-tier administrative body for Greater London.
Speaking on the night of the election results Walker said: “It is an honour to have led a wonderful campaign in which so many incredible people have participated. I want to pay tribute to our candidates, volunteers and campaign teams in London, Scotland and Wales, whose hard work helped push equality up the agenda in all of yesterday’s elections.”
“If we reflect on what we have done in London, and across the country, in the 12 short weeks of the election campaigns, we can see that while we may not have won seats we have won in another way. By being in the race, WE have put our issues and our policies onto the political agendas of the election winners. This achievement tempers my disappointment in our loss tonight.”
She added: “This has been an extraordinary first year. We have four to go until 2020. Equality for women can’t wait. And neither will WE.”
