The House Article | “Expertly told”: Emma Foody reviews ‘Margaret Bondfield’

1910: Emmeline Pankhurst (left) listens as Margaret Bondfield (right) makes a speech | Image by: Mirrorpix / Alamy

3 min read3 min

There are two Labour women who have shaped my political life – and indeed the lives of many of my colleagues – more than any others: Margaret Bondfield and Nan Sloane. Bringing them together in Nan’s new biography of Bondfield feels like a Labour Party version of Avengers Assemble.

Most of us know Nan as the driving force behind the Jo Cox Women in Leadership Programme. She has guided more women toward the green benches than I could possibly count. That she has used her formidable skills to shine a light on the pioneers who came before us, ensuring the stories of Labour women aren’t just remembered but heard, is a testament to her.

Margaret Bondfield’s list of ‘firsts’ is remarkable, but her life before Westminster was arguably even more radical. She was a powerhouse in the trade union movement, famously going undercover to expose the shocking conditions women faced on and beyond the shop floor.

 She rose through the ranks of the predecessor to today’s Usdaw, rising to the senior leadership team, becoming the first woman delegate to the TUC Conference and eventually the first woman to chair the TUC.

Her parliamentary career was a series of broken glass ceilings – the first woman to speak from the despatch box, the first female Cabinet minister, and the first female privy counsellor.

Her parliamentary career was a series of broken glass ceilings

Advertisement

Yet this book isn’t just a dry tally of milestones but rather a testimony to the grit it took to get there. My favourite story in the book captures this perfectly, where Bondfield joined the shopworkers’ union after spotting an advert for it in the newspaper her chips were wrapped in during a lunch break. 

It’s such a brilliantly ordinary moment, but it sparked a life of extraordinary public service.

Nan expertly shows how Bondfield’s politics were rooted in the precariousness of working-class life. Growing up with the very real fear of the workhouse, she understood how quickly a life could be upended by low wages or uncertain employment. That sense of insecurity stayed with her throughout her career. Her politics were never academic – they were grounded in the material realities of working families and, specifically, working women.

She was a fearless risk-taker, though she doesn’t always fit a neat “feminist” mould. She wasn’t a suffragette; she believed that extending the franchise to all – including the working class and not just middle-class property owners – was the only way to truly serve the interests of working-class women. Certainly she made mistakes and took positions that don’t always hold up a century later, but her impact is undeniable.

I do wonder what she would make of today’s landscape – particularly our New Deal for Working People. To see us finally delivering on the issues she was campaigning for a 100 years ago shows that while times change, the fault lines remain the same.

It’s been a century since Margaret Bondfield first represented my constituency. As her successor, and as a proud member of both the shopworkers’ union and the Co-op Party, I feel a deep responsibility. Our movement is the most important vehicle for change we have, and I’m going to work every single day to make sure I live up to the standard she set.

Emma Foody is Labour ( Co-op) MP for Cramlington and Killingworth

Margaret Bondfield: The Life and Times of Britain’s First Female Cabinet Minister

By: Nan Sloane

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic