All Party Parliamentary Group

It is good to be able to report some good news for a change. An All-Party Parliamentary Group on issues affecting men and boys has been formed within the UK Parliament. In large part, this is due to campaigning by Mike Bell of Equi-Law UK. I would encourage everyone to donate to Equi-Law UK to help them with their work.

The inaugural meeting was held on March 16th and the officers and secretariat were elected. The Chair will be Mark Jenkinson MP. The vice-chairs will be Lord Fred Ponsonby, Baroness Margaret Eaton; Ben Bradley, MP; and Nick Fletcher, MP.

What concerns me is that there is not a single sitting MP from Her Majesties Opposition, the Labour Party, in the group. Whether they were not invited or whether the health and well-being of 49% of the population is of not a concern to them I do not know. I would urge anyone in a constituency with a Labour MP to write and ask why is Labour not represented at the MP level?

The Labour Party does seem to have something of a man problem and this is an area that it can ill afford to neglect. I suspect, however, that it would not view that as a problem at all. Looking at the data from the 2019 election the dominant trend is that older people are more likely to vote conservative. It was perceived by commentators in the media that the conservatives had a ‘woman problem’ but what the data showed was that Labour had a ‘man problem,’ particularly among young voters. The figure below shows that among men 18-24 years of age 46% voted labour compared to 65% of women of the same age. You have to be cautious about inferring longitudinal trends from cross-sectional data such as this. However, because people become less likely to vote Labour with increasing age starting from such a low position with young men should worry Labour.

Labour is developing a reputation for institutional misandry. A failure to engage with the Parliamentary APPG for men and boys is likely to increase that problem.