Fair and Lawful Quotas - Round II

This Saturday morning at Lib Dem Conference in Bournemouth we will see the second attempt by our group - Liberal Voice for Women to amend the Constitution to bring its approach to diversity quotas for men and women into line with equality law.

The first such attempt was at Spring Conference in York in 2023. On that occasion, such was the unwillingness of activists on the conference floor to even tolerate the airing of the opinion that biological sex is a real and meaningful category, our opponents succeeded in passing a motion to “move to next business”. This meant that only one short speech in favour by the proposer was allowed. Nonetheless LVW Chair Zoe Hollowood took full advantage of the albeit limited opportunity and her speech was viewed over half a million times on twitter and YouTube. The Streisand effect in action.

The fate of our second attempt to pass this motion will - we think - depend largely on leadership. Last time several MPs, including the leader Ed Davey, attended the “debate” just to vote against it being heard. It will be interesting to see what they do this time, now that the circumstances are slightly different: the law hasn't changed but the Supreme Court has ruled that the “terfs” were right all along - sex in the Equality Act means biological sex. 

LVW has sought a legal opinion on the relevant provisions of the Constitution which confirms everything we already knew - this situation is entirely analogous to the FWS Supreme Court ruling and the Lib Dems need to get their house in order.

This Saturday will be our opportunity to test whether our leadership does indeed care about equality and the rule of law, including when it applies to themselves.