The outrage many women are feeling at some of Labour’s initial acts in government, which will deeply affect women’s lives, is loud and righteous. The past week has been particularly egregious, with callous moves piling up thick and fast. 

Labour’s decision to means test the winter fuel allowance will force many female pensioners, just the wrong side of the very low threshold, to wrestle with a decision as to whether they can afford to heat their homes sufficiently. It is not an exaggeration to say that some may die with their hand hovering over the thermostat — or they will decide to be warm but starve, especially if we face a harsh winter. Labour blamed the Tories. 

This week also saw, despite previous assurances that this would not be the case, reports that prisoners released early under a scheme introduced by the Tories, would include among the 5000 those who are rapists and domestic abusers; some of their victims would not be made aware in advance. Nicole Jacobs the Domestic Abuse Commissioner confirmed this was likely, as did NAPO the probation service union. Labour blamed the Tories.

Labour had already announced it would be “unable” to remove the deeply offensive “Rape Clause”, introduced by the previous Tory government. Labour had always vehemently lambasted this Tory move to limit child tax credit to the first two of a woman’s children unless she could prove the third child was conceived as a result of being raped. Before the election Starmer made clear he would keep it, blaming of course, the Tories.

When it came to the issue of women’s rights under the Equality Act 2010 one of the things the Tories had committed to — however cynical an electioneering move it seemed — was clarifying the meaning of “sex” as a protected characteristic, to mean biological sex. This had the crucial aim of protecting and improving the provision of single sex services for women. Anneliese Dodds announced that Labour would not carry this bill forward. This time of course it was impossible to blame the Tories. This betrayal of women rests squarely as a decision made by Labour. 

Lastly, for now, comes the appointment of Sarah Owen MP as Chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee; greeted with dismay by women’s rights organisations. Owen is a proponent of the “trans women are women” mantra, and seemed unable to deny she still held that position when quizzed on Woman’s Hour after her appointment, saying it was “really sad that we are still at this stage of the debate”. She continued, evasively:

 What a woman to me is somebody who is going to be paid less than their male counterpart, it is somebody who is going to be less safe walking down the street, it’s going to be somebody who faces more barriers in the workplace, in education, in the health sector. These are the issues that are really facing women.

The fact that men are pretending to be women up and down the land, and that female politicians with power over women’s lives are believing them, appears not to be one of the issues facing women; not for Sarah anyway. Labour can’t really blame the Tories for the stupid of a Labour MP or I’m sure they would try. 

Labour would have us believe that they knew nothing of the prison crisis for example before they came to power. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said,

On taking office two months ago, it was immediately clear that we had inherited a prison system at the point of collapse. That is why our emergency action, which will see certain offenders leave prison a few weeks or months early, has proved necessary.

Starmer waves his hand over the “surprise” £22 billion pound “black hole” as though he has never seen a bank statement in his life. 

In both cases, the adult voting population has the right to expect the party of opposition to be as competent as the party in government, and let’s face it, that was a very low bar to jump. It is a dereliction of duty as the party in opposition, that Labour would be clueless as to the extent of either problem, they were paid to know these things. Women should not be bearing the consequences of incompetent political leadership from either the Tories or Labour. 

And yet, despite this motorway pile up of political grimness, I am still hearing some feminist women mutter the Labour-protective phrase, “it’s early days yet.”

Well, I have to agree, if what they mean is that there could be so many more horrible moves to come. If Starmer’s government has achieved so much depressing stuff in 71 days, roughly 4 per cent of the way into a possible 5-year term, what they might achieve by the end of it fills me with dread. I believe that Labour showed us, and in some instances told us, what they would do, or not do, to ensure the continued erosion of women’s rights, and they are doing exactly what they said. Why some feminist women, seemingly in a blind bond to Labour, didn’t believe them escapes me. It also infuriates me that they think Labour deserve a bit more rope to hang us with. 

Some prominent left-wing women, before the election, pleaded with us to trust Labour and allow them space to make the right decisions. They suggested that it was wrong to focus on the single issue of gender ideology, because women would benefit in so many other ways under a Labour government. 

After many years of being told that women are influencing Labour “behind the scenes” my faith in that has gone

I wonder, did they envisage this Labour government? The one maintaining unequal benefits, placing violent men amongst their female victims and keeping the blurred line between gender and sex embedded in law? I can understand if those women were now as dismayed as the rest of us at what they are seeing, but instead they appear to be spinning for Labour, suggesting the violent men aren’t really being released or excusing it by blaming the Tories. They suggest we should wait and see what happens, keep the faith, trust the process. After many years of being told that women are influencing Labour “behind the scenes” my faith in that has gone. 

If you are a feminist woman openly critical of Labour you may now be accused of “right wing drift”. This is nonsense. Instead, should scrutiny not be focused on how far Labour have drifted from the left? This is where condemnation should be aimed. 

Starmer has announced that he has radical plans, but also that the forthcoming budget will be “painful”. His words are ominous: “it’s going to be painful. We have no other choice given the situation that we’re in”

He is using this “surprise situation”, that of being elected on a presumption of competence, to excuse the unpopular policies he will now impose on us, whilst blaming the Tories. I believe there could well be more pain for women. Starmer has a party stuffed full of misogynists who believe men are women, and if they believe that, I don’t believe they care about women in any other area. 

When women talk of what has been achieved slowly over the last 5 years or so, of how far we have come on the issue of gender identity, then that’s true, we have. A lot more people are aware and angry — but that word, that opposition, has grown outside the walls of Labour MPs’ parliamentary offices. It has not been whispered under their doors to any real effect and seems to have been ignored entirely. 

We are watching a Labour government perform Tory-like acts against women in their first months in government and I don’t understand why high-profile feminists are not tearing down the metaphorical walls to get at them. Anger must be expressed, not limited. Hope has been dashed and we are right to rebel against those dashing it. The time of remaining loyal to Starmer’s bunch of faux Tories has passed. The time for hoping they wouldn’t do what they said they would regarding women’s rights is over. They are doing it, and worse. You got what you paid for.