A new Tory MP has said her famous father is “her biggest champion” – and that her aim is to fight to ensure half of the seats in the Commons are occupied by women.
Aphra Brandreth, the daughter of former MP and TV personality Gyles Brandreth, became the MP for Chester South and Eddisbury at the last General Election.
She is also an honorary vice president of Conservative Women’s Organisation (CWO).
Speaking exclusively to Gloria De Piero on GB News, Aphra Brandreth outlined how she plans to fight for change.
Aphra Brandreth, the daughter of former MP and TV personality Gyles Brandreth, is the new MP for Chester South and Eddisbury
GB NEWS
She said: “The CWO is actually the oldest women’s political organisation in the world, which is quite amazing.
“And it’s about getting more women to stand for elected office, but it’s also making sure that women’s voices are heard in policy development. And for me, I think that’s a big part of it, is there’s lots of great men, but there’s lots of great women too.
“And we need to have that diversity of voices. And still in 2024, we don’t have 50:50 men and women in Parliament. So, I just want to be part of making sure that I’m supporting other women to get involved and to put themselves forward to stand, because it’s so important.
“But it is tough. And, you know, we need to do a lot more because I think we’re only at about 25 per cent of our Conservative parliamentary party are women at the moment, and I’d love to see that at 50 per cent or more.”
She said women thinking of entering politics need to be strong and prepared to cope with disappointment: “I think you’ve got to believe in yourself and keep persevering, because this is not an easy journey to go down.
“And it’s not one that necessarily gives you results straight away. But I think particularly as women and this obviously isn’t all women, you can’t kind of group everybody into one big pot. But we tend to want to be perfect at everything before we do it.
“I mean, I’m terrible at doing that as well. I always feel like unless I know a topic 100 per cent, I feel very wary about speaking about it. But a lot of the men are just very confident to just go in, even when they’re only at 60 per cent.
“You’ve got to have self-belief, you’ve got to go and do it and also take the knock backs, but keep going through them, see what you can learn from them.
“And you know we can do it. And there are lots of women here since I’ve come in who’ve been so supportive and who want to help more women to get involved, so the sisterhood is strong.“
Asked if she was saying she will not rest until there was gender equality in the Commons, she said: “Absolutely, absolutely.”Gloria asked if her father was proud: “I think he’s more excited than I am. He’s definitely my biggest champion.
“He doesn’t just give me one piece of advice. I get, honestly, daily texts and phone calls and emails giving me hints and tips. And I mean, it’s actually so lovely.
“I made a speech just recently on the winter fuel allowance, and I got a text immediately afterwards saying that him and my mum had watched it and how proud they were, so that was really amazing.”