Campaign update: Day 1
Yesterday we launched the Make the Equality Act Clear petition, calling on the government to clarify, with a legislative amendment, that sex means sex in the Equality Act 2010.
It got an amazing response. In less than 24 hours, 15,000 people signed the petition, and the number is continuing to rise fast.
By passing 10,000 signatures, we have guaranteed a short response from the government, and we are writing to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Minister for Women and Equalities Kemi Badenoch in advance of this.
The next stage is to push on to 100,000 signatures to get a parliamentary debate. If you haven’t signed yet do it now, and if you have, share the petition widely!
Who is signing?
There is now at least one signature from every constituency in the country, and over 100 in several. You can watch the constituency race in real time on petition mapper (or the hex version, which shows each constituency the same size).
This morning’s three top-ranked constituencies are all in Edinburgh, and there are eight Scottish constituencies in the top 25.
Many people are using this as an opportunity to send a message to their SNP, Labour, Lib Dem or Green MP that this is an issue that really matters to them. But of course we need Conservatives to hear this too.
Signature counts at 2022-11-03 09:00
| Rank | MP | Constituency | # | Party |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Deidre Brock MP | Edinburgh North and Leith | 122 | SNP |
| 2 | Tommy Sheppard MP | Edinburgh East | 100 | SNP |
| 3 | Ian Murray MP | Edinburgh South | 100 | Labour |
| 4 | Caroline Lucas MP | Brighton, Pavilion | 98 | Green |
| 5 | Rt Hon Keir Starmer MP | Holborn and St Pancras | 98 | Labour |
| 6 | Catherine West MP | Hornsey and Wood Green | 94 | Labour |
| 7 | Daniel Zeichner MP | Cambridge | 90 | Labour |
| 8 | Stephen Doughty MP | Cardiff South and Penarth | 82 | Labour |
| 9 | Rt Hon Diane Abbott MP | Hackney North and Stoke Newington | 81 | Labour |
| 10 | Kevin Brennan MP | Cardiff West | 80 | Labour |
| 11 | Craig Whittaker MP | Calder Valley | 79 | Conservative |
| 12 | Thangam Debbonaire MP | Bristol West | 77 | Labour |
| 13 | Joanna Cherry QC MP | Edinburgh South West | 72 | SNP |
| 14 | Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn MP | Islington North | 70 | Independent |
| 15 | Kenny MacAskill MP | East Lothian | 69 | Alba |
| 16 | Clive Lewis MP | Norwich South | 67 | Labour |
| 17 | Sarah Olney MP | Richmond Park | 66 | Lib Dem |
| 18 | Rt Hon David Lammy MP | Tottenham | 66 | Labour |
| 19 | Brendan O’Hara MP | Argyll and Bute | 64 | SNP |
| 20 | Peter Kyle MP | Hove | 61 | Labour |
| 21 | Christine Jardine MP | Edinburgh West | 61 | Lib Dem |
| 22 | Stewart Malcolm McDonald MP | Glasgow South | 61 | SNP |
| 23 | Wera Hobhouse MP | Bath | 60 | Lib Dem |
| 24 | Layla Moran MP | Oxford West and Abingdon | 59 | Lib Dem |
| 25 | Anthony Browne MP | South Cambridgeshire | 58 | Conservative |
Announcing a competition!
We are aiming to get to 100,000 signatures to prompt a debate in Parliament. And Sex Matters is going to bring the debate to wherever has managed to get the most signatures at the moment we reach that milestone, by holding a live Sex Matters event in that constituency.