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Welsh group makes suffragette sashes for every female MP

Charlie Buckland
BBC News
Anne Marie Bickerton 264 female MPs stand in Westminster Hall, all wearing the green, purple and white Centenary Action sashes. A stain glass tall window can be seen behind the group. Anne Marie Bickerton
All 264 female MPs received a handmade suffagrette sash to mark 97 years since all women got the vote

A team of Welsh seamstresses have made 264 sashes for every female MP to mark 97 years since women were given the right to vote.

The group, based in Newport, call themselves Lucy and the Sashmeisters, and the handcrafted white sashes were given to the current female MPs at Westminster Hall on Wednesday.

The sashes hope to both commemorate the difficulties faced during the suffragette movement, and the significance of the Equal Franchise Act of 1928, which gave women over the age of 21 the right to vote.

Organised by Centenary Action, the project is part of the campaign for the equal number of male and female MPs. Currently around 40% of the total Members of Parliament are female.

Centenary action was established by Dr Helen Pankhurst, the granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst and great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst - two trailblazing women who founded the suffragettes and campaigned for women's right to vote.

Prior to the act being passed, only women over the age of 30 who occupied a house, or were married to someone who did, could vote.

The group have been crafting the sashes since March, and women of all age ranges and backgrounds helped out, with the youngest aged 15, and then the oldest aged 87.

They are white twill sashes, with one purple ribbon down one side and green on the other side, the iconic colours of the British suffragette movement.

Each sash is numbered, depending on where each MP comes in the all-time list of female MPs.

Emma Stowell Corten A group of women can be seen stood on steps in Westminster Hall. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner stands in the centre, wearing a white sash over a red mid-length dress. Jessica Morden stands behind her on her right, while Ruth Jones stands behind her on the left. Both Ms Morden and Ms Jones wear the same sash. They all smile at the camera. Emma Stowell Corten
The seamstresses with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Jessica Morden, MP for Newport East, and Ruth Jones, MP for Newport West and Islwyn

"There have only ever been 694 female MPs, so for all the women it connects them to the past, to the history of suffrage, it connects them to each other," said Dr Pankhurst.

"It's a baton that's also being handed over to the next generation of female MPs, to know their number and find ways to support each other and transform Parliament."

There are the most female MPs ever at present, which is a milestone worth recognising, said Dr Pankhurst, but she added "celebration alone isn't enough".

"We need real, sustained action to ensure we reach a truly gender-equal Parliament by 2028, when we mark the centenary of equal franchise."

Getty Images Suffragettes in 'Votes for Women' sashes, 1910. Campaigners in the struggle to get the vote for women. Six women sit up on a horse drawn carriage, while sit women stand on the front of it. Some can be seen wearing sashes, which read: Votes for women. It is a black and white image.Getty Images
"Votes for women" sashes were first worn by members of the Woman's Social and Political Union in about 1903

Spearhead of the project, seamstress Lucy Harris, said: "I'm really proud to be able to do this for them, they work for us and particularly for women, we have a voice now."

"Our earliest sash is for Diane Abbott," Ms Harris told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

She said while there aren't 50% female MPs yet, the process of making the sashes highlighted the increase of women going up per decade, which she described as "amazing".

Lucy Harris pictured holding the centenary sash, which reads: "569. Centenary Action." She has long blonde hair behind her back, wears a floral dress and wide rimmed reading glasses. She stands in front of an orange backdrop which reads: BBC Radio Wales.
Seamstress Lucy Harris says she's really proud to be able to do this for women in Parliament

Nancy Astor was the first woman to sit as an MP in the House of Commons in 1919 and she sat alongside 706 men.

Today, there are 386 men.

Ms Harris said she was first put in touch with Dr Pankhurst in 2018, when she made 100 suffragette sashes for the march for women in London on International Women's Day.

Just before Christmas last year, she said she got an email from Dr Pankhurst asking if she and those at Re:Make, a community repair and reuse space in Newport, would want to do it again.

PA Media OCTOBER 11th 1908: Suffragette Emily Pankhurst addressing a meeting in London's Trafalgar Square, 1908. Emmeline Pankhurst was a political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement. Although widely criticised for her militant tactics, her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in Britain. PA Media
Centenary Action was founded by the great-grandaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, political activist and leader of the suffragette movement

Labour MP Jessica Morden was heavily involved in the project, and helped deliver the sashes to Westminster.

Ms Morden said she was "so proud" to see the sashes, and it was "quite the moment" to witness so many female MPs wearing their sashes together.

"It is a testament to how far we've come since the Equal Franchise Act of 1928," she added.

She described the event as a "fitting tribute" to all the suffragettes who fought and suffered to ensure that all women could have their say in how the country is run.

"The number 264 represents around 40% of the total Members of Parliament," she added.

"This shows there is still much work to do to achieve a truly representative Parliament in which 50% of MPs are female."

She thanked Centenary Action for bringing the project together and the "utterly brilliant" seamstresses at Re:Make for "working so hard to make all of the sashes from scratch".