Audio recordings

Including interviews, oral histories and radio programmes. Highlights here include an interview between Mark Abrams (social scientist and businessman) and his grandson, and interviews conducted throughout 2019 with Female MPs, Rebel MPs and Academics.
Interview with Rupa Huq Women and Brexit
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/41
Date:
2018-09-04 (creation)
Description:
Huq, Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton held a debate in Parliament's Westminster Hall to discuss the impact of 'Brexiting' the EU on women and their families. Huq believes that Brexit would affect women, particularly those in low paid caring jobs, who would also have to bear the brunt of any resulting economic downturn when many were already in insecure and low paid jobs. Conservative Minister Victoria Atkins responded to her concerns saying that the government would be conducting a gender audit of any legislative changes post Brexit. She said the UK was leading the World on its policies on gender pay gap audits. Huq hoped that Labour would reject Theresa May's Chequers Deal.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with Jo Swinson MP and baby Gabriel: Proxy Voting
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/42
Date:
2018-09-13 (creation)
Description:
Swinson made parliamentary history by taking her 11 week old son Gabriel into the Chamber of the House of Commons while she listened to the end of a debate on Proxy Voting. Swinson had spoken previously in the same debate before leaving to feed Gabriel. Swinson speaks about supporting proxy voting. Swinson had spoken passionately about the difficulties of getting young babies to 'latch' when breast feeding and revealed that she keeps expressed milk not alcohol in her office fridge. Swinson had to confront the controversy of Tory whips telling their MPs who had been 'paired' with others, to break that pairing arrangement in an important vote before the summer recess on Brexit which the government narrowly won.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with Seema Malhotra MP: The Brexit Select Committee
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/43
Date:
2018-09-13 (creation)
Description:
Malhotra, Labour MP for Feltham and Heston is a member of the Brexit Select Committee. She speaks to Sones after PMQs where the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had questioned Theresa May MP the Prime Minister on the issue of Universal Credit. Sones asks Malhotra whether she thought PMQs was too noisy, the response May gave and if the Brexit Select Committee was being effective. Malhotra stated that PMQs was so noisy, she could not hear Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and calls for the Government to take this more seriously. They discuss the Chequers Brexit Deal and Malhotra believes it leaves too many unanswered questions.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with Carolyn Harris MP: a new Private Members' Bill that helps 1950 women affected by the State Pension Age increase
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/44
Date:
2018-10-02 (creation)
Description:
Harris, Labour MP for Swansea East brought in a new Private Members' Bill to alleviate the hardship caused to 1950s born women who have seen their pension ages increase. At least 2.6 million women are said to be affected by these staggered changes to the age at which they can now retire. The Pensions (Review of Women's Arrangements) Bill was supposed to be read for a second time on the floor of the House at the end of October 2018 but Harris asked for it to be rescheduled on one sitting Friday in November or December to ensure that it gets heard rather than dropped. Harris' Bill proposes three measures that would alleviate the hardship: these are transitional payments to be made until women qualify for the pension at the new age, an extension of tax credits where there is no other income, and all women to be given the maximum pension entitlement. Harris believes that this is the fastest route. She has come in for criticism from others, but pointed out that the All Party Parliamentary group on inequality and the State Pension Age is not associated with any other campaigns.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with Baroness Ros Altmann on Theresa May's speech to the Conservative Party conference
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/45
Date:
2018-10-03 (creation)
Description:
Altmann, a Conservative Peer and former Pensions Minister, gives her reaction to the Prime Minister, Theresa May's speech to Conference today. Theresa May ruled out a People's Vote and a Second Referendum saying it would be a 'politician's vote' and diminish 'faith in our democracy'. Altmann, a leading proponent of a People's Vote, says she will continue to campaign for one.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


WASPI: Interviews with Karen Glynn, Janet Rhodes, Julie Delve, Christine Austin, and Prafula Shah: Women's State Pension Rise Injustices Rally in Westminster #WASPI #Backto60 #OneVoice #LondonRally10thOctober2018
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/46
Date:
2018-10-10 (creation)
Description:
Hundreds of women marched from Hyde Park to Westminster from all over the country, in protest again at the rise to their state pension age. Carrying banners, and bringing traffic to a standstill outside Parliament several of the campaign groups associated with the SPA rises for women joined together #ShoulderToShoulder to raise the issue yet again with politicians and Theresa May's government.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with two women at Womens State Pension Rally representing shouldertoshoulder and onevoice
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/47
Date:
2018-10-10 (creation)
Description:
#ShoulderToShoulder hears from Timandra French and Leilah Leak from East Kent Waspi and #BackTo60 talk to Sones about their march to Westminister to protest pension age increases for 3.5 million women.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with Seema Malhotra MP: the Brexit Select Meeting and the Brexit fudge
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/48
Date:
2018-10-10 (creation)
Description:
Malhotra, MP for Feltham and Heston sits on the Brexit Select Committee and took time to tell Parliamentary Radio who the Committee had heard evidence from and what kind of 'fudge' she thinks the country will end up with. She tried to ask Theresa May, the Prime Minister a question in PMQs, Malhotra says that by 2020 the Institute for Government has estimated that 4 billion pounds will have been spent on Brexit. Malhotra did not think a Royal Commission on Brexit should be set up but that the government should be taking more notice of the evidence already presented by its own Select Committee.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with Gavin Shuker: Hate Crime
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/49
Date:
2018-10-17 (creation)
Description:
Shuker, MP for Luton South is a member of the Women and Equalities Select Committee which had heard evidence from the traveller community on hate crime. The Committee had been looking at hate crime including associated with race, disability and women. Some, such as Labour MP Stella Creasy called for misogyny to be made a hate crime. Shuker tells Parliamentary Radio why he thinks social media must reform to take down users, on sites like Twitter and Facebook. He believes that there is a responsibility on social media companies and big tech firms. Shuker explains that the 2010 Equality Act only went so far and that if new 'smart' legislation were introduced it would need European and US co-operation.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with Maria Miller MP: Cox Report and Harassment in Parliament
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/50
Date:
2018-10-17 (creation)
Description:
Miller, Conservative MP for Basingstoke chairs the Women and Equalities Select Committee and used a debate (16 October) to discuss the Dame Laura Cox report on harassment and bullying in Parliament to call for Speaker John Bercow to resign. Miller was disappointed with the number of MPs in the debate and that it was obvious Bercow should step down.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with Heidi Allen MP on 'fortune Phil's' Budget and Brexit
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/51
Date:
2018-10-30 (creation)
Description:
Allen, the MP for South Cambridgeshire speaks to Parliamentary Radio after Chancellor Philip Hammond produced a budget giving extra money to public services, such as health, defence and pot holes. Allen sits on the Work and Pensions Select Committee and says that Hammond has not done enough to redress the balance of austerity. Allen represents a strong remain constituency where people are employed in agriculture, a high tech industry and academia. She supports a Norway type deal embracing both the single market and the customs union which would solve the problem of the Northern Irish border. Allen explained that she would continue to campaign to reform the introduction of Universal Credit.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with Peter Clarke, Professor Emeritus of Modern British History at the University of Cambridge on 'Are the Conservatives entering their third historical political phase of self-destruction?'
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/52
Date:
2018-11-05 (creation)
Description:
Clarke discusses Theresa May's leadership of the Conservative Party, the Brexit negotiations and the outcomes of her Chequers Deal. He looks back to the 19th Century Corn Law reforms which led to the resignation of the Prime Minister, Robert Peel and later the 20th Century tariff reforms under Arthur Balfour's Prime-ministership which ended disastrously for the party leading to a historic election defeat. Clarke believes that May dug herself into the subsequent difficulties she faced. Clarke believes that she 'needn't have done any of that', referring to triggering Article 50 and spelling out her 'red lines' in 2016. Clarke discusses how the UK arrived at the Brexit Referendum, referring to the United Kingdom Independence Party and how the Conservative Party became ideological, as they did before First World War when the issue of Tariff Reform. Clarke believed there could be both a People's Vote and a General Election and ended by warning that the Conservative Party have been most successful when they were the moderate party of pragmatism and they have left these sort of ideological contortions to the party opposite - be it Liberal or Labour.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Women MPs Of The World Debate: A First for the House of Commons
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/53
Date:
2018-11-08 (creation)
Description:
Five women MPs who brought about change in their countries tell the stories of their parliaments. Over 100 women from over eighty countries and five continents took part in a special debate in the House of Commons Chamber - it was the first time women from around the world had sat and spoken in the UK Parliament. Sones heard from Linda Fairbrother.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


UK Parliament Week: Why you need to persevere in politics
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/54
Date:
2018-11-14 (creation)
Description:
Dame Caroline Spelman, the Conservative MP for Meriden and former Secretary of State for the Environment in David Cameron's 2010 government, hosted an event in Westminster to explore ways of encouraging more women to enter the Church.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with Carolyn Harris MP: Fixed Odd Betting Terminals the Chancellor climbs down
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/55
Date:
2018-11-17 (creation)
Description:
Carolyn Harris is Labour MP for Swansea East is the Chair for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fixed-Odds Betting Terminals. She discusses the u-turn the Chancellor Phillip Hammond did on introducing changes to the rules governing FOBT lowering the maximum stake that can be waged to just two pounds sooner rather than later.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


50:50 Parliament #AskHerToStand
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/56
Date:
2018-11-19 (creation)
Description:
In November 2018, 200 MPs took 300 women to the UK Parliament as part of the 50:50 Parliament campaign to encourage more women to stand for and become MPs. Sones hears from supporters of the campaign: Amelia Womack, Deputy Leader of the Green Party; Daniel Zeichner, the Labour MP for Cambridge, Frances Scott of 50:50 Parliament; Jackie Ashley, a former president of Lucy Cavendish College and Professor Dame Carol Black, Principle of Newnham College. Womack emphasised that 'women need to be asked to stand several times'. Ashley says that things were 'getting easier' for women in Parliament now as there were more women. In 2018, 32% of the 650 MPs were women and it is estimated that it could take up to 200 years before there was a 50:50 gender based parliament.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother





Interview with Anne Marie Trevelyan MP: why when you are an MP, Country has to be the first battle to fight
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/58
Date:
2018-12-11 (creation)
Description:
'Brexiteer' Anne Marie Trevelyan and Conservative MP for Berwick Upon Tweed represents a fishing constituency that voted to Leave the EU in the 2016 Referendum. Trevelyan resigned her junior ministerial position in the Department of Education. Trevelyan was disappointed with Theresa May's decision to delay the Brexit vote. Speaking about her decision to resign from the government she said that after reading the agreement she felt she had little choice and that as an MP your loyalty is to your Constituency.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


209 Women Photo Exhibition in #Vote100 year of 207 women MPs
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/59
Date:
2018-12-14 (creation)
Description:
MPs across party celebrated the 209 Women photo exhibition in Westminster, on December 14th 1918 women voted for the first time and in the same year, the first female MP was elected. Sones speaks to Joanna Cherry QC and the SNP MP for Edinburgh South West. Cherry is a fan of Georgina Markievicz who never took up her seat as an Irish nationalist and suffragist and whose portrait now hangs in Parliament for the first time. Cherry also helped to instigate the legal challenge to Brexit in the European Court of Justice which ruled that the UK can revoke Article 50.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


209 Women Photo Exhibition in #Vote100 year of 207 women MPs
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/60
Date:
2018-12-14 (creation)
Description:
Sones spoke to Yvette Cooper, Andrea Leadsom, Helen Whately, Kate Osamor, Lyn Brown and Marsha de Cordova about the Photo Exhibition
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with Jessica Elgot, Political Correspondent, TheGuardian.Com Newspaper
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/61
Date:
2018-12-20 (creation)
Description:
Elgot discusses the last PMQs of the December 20th session and the 'Stupid Woman Gate' remark said to have been made by Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with Emma Lewell-Buck, the Labour MP for South Shields
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/62
Date:
2019-01-09 (creation)
Description:
The Charlie Cookson Foundation is run by parents Sarah and Chris Cookson, who lost a child, and helps to support children with life threatening conditions. [https://charliecookson.org.uk] Their child was found to have a heart condition and requires a transplant. On January 9th Lewell-Buck, Shadow Minister for Children and Families, asked Theresa May to help save their child. Theresa May declared that she would encourage people to make organ donations.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother


Interview with Caroline Spelman MP and Jack Dromey MP - Preventing a no-deal Brexit
Reference Code:
SOBA 1/63
Date:
2019-01-09 (creation)
Description:
Sones discusses attempts by MPs to ensure that the UK will not leave the European Union with a no-deal. Over 220 MPs signed a letter trying to guarantee this. The no-deal letter was started by neighbouring Midlands MPs from opposite sides of the party divide, Dame Caroline Spelman, Conservative MP for Meriden and Jack Dromey, Labour MP for Birmingham Erdington who both said jobs had already been lost in their constituencies. Dromey tells Sones that MPs have to remain focused to do everything to get a deal and ensure that the economy. Spelman supports Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement.
Collection:
Women’s Parliamentary Radio publications and podcasts, conducted by Boni Sones with contributions by Jackie Ashley, Deborah McGurran and Linda Fairbrother