Our candidate for Liverpool Metro Mayor brings women’s voices to the contest
Published 20 February 2017
The Women’s Equality Party today unveiled Tabitha Morton as its candidate for Mayor of the Liverpool City Region - the only woman in the contest - and pledged to shake up a mayoral race that has so far not spoken to the women of Merseyside.
“None of the other candidates in the running have focused on gender equality. I want to make sure that women’s interests are represented by putting equality on the agenda for Merseyside,” said Morton, 40, an Allerton resident who works in the manufacturing industry.
Morton grew up in Liverpool on a Netherton council estate and with little formal education worked her way up in a male-dominated industry to become Head of Integration at Yale. She joined the Women’s Equality Party as a founding member in 2015 after a lifetime of work discrimination.
“Sexism in this city is alive and well: I had to try twice as hard as my male colleagues in order to achieve the same recognition,” she said. “Nearly 370,000 people are employed in the production industries in the North West - a higher proportion than any other region in the UK - and this growing sector is dominated by men, helping to contribute to Liverpool’s gender pay gap. I want to make things fair in Merseyside and I will be putting forward practical policies to represent the needs and interests of everyone.”
Leader of the Women’s Equality Party Sophie Walker said she was delighted to introduce Morton to members and supporters at the launch event.
“There is an idea that politics happens in Westminster, but politics happens right here in your communities and on your doorstep,” Walker said. “Women in the north right now are overlooked, underrepresented and disproportionately hurt by public sector cuts. And when the poorest households suffer the most it’s those that are doubly or trebly disadvantaged because of their race, their ethnicity, their disability, that pay the highest price.
“It is vital that the all the people in our communities, whose lives will be moulded by these decisions and these deals, have their say. Local government as well as national government must have gender equality and diversity at its heart. It’s time to raise the bar - so I am thrilled to introduce Tabitha Morton as our candidate today.”
Morton added: “I have always voted for the party that I thought cared about my city, my friends and family and their futures. Today I stand as representative for a party that I know for certain has my interests, and the interests of all women in Merseyside, at the centre of everything it does. We are all equal at the ballot box. Let’s make every vote count on 4 May.”