Bangladeshi-origin British MP Rupa Huq raised the issue of women’s rights being under threat with Brexit in a UK parliamentary debate.
The Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton in west London called the ‘Women’s rights after the UK leaves the EU’ debate in Westminster Hall on Tuesday to highlight that gender issues are being pushed to the back of the queue as Britain negotiates with the European Union (EU) for its exit from the economic bloc by March next year.
She said: “We are at a crucial crossroads. This government could theoretically opt to better the existing gender equality standards we have via EU frameworks. Alternatively, it could undercut them with the removal of legal protections for women.
“The omens are not good judging by the way that Conservative governments have attempted to wriggle out of these obligations before.”
Huq highlights that “hard-won rights” of maternity and paternity leave and pregnancy discrimination all came from the EU and there is no guarantee that these will be upheld post-Brexit. Nurses, mostly women, from EU nations are leaving the care sector which will undoubtedly impact the UK’s state-funded National Health Service (NHS) negatively, she warns.
She warns: “All of these factors add up to the inescapable conclusion that women are hardest hit of all by Brexit.
“Women’s rights should not be an optional extra but integral to all policy-making,” she adds.