Labour won 419 of the 659 seats in the 1997 General Election. One hundred and one of the Labour MPs were women, and 65 of those were new to Parliament.
Only ten of them were left in 2023, and only five of the 65 new ones: Karen Buck, Yvette Cooper, Maria Eagle, Siobhain McDonagh and Rosie Winterton. But this is 26 years on; there are currently 225 women in the House of Commons. This is a new high at 35%, and it's the first time that more than a third of Westminster MPs have been female. In 1997 the total was 120 – exactly double the 60 elected five years earlier. As well as Labour's 101, there were thirteen Conservatives, three Liberal Democrats, and three others (including Speaker Betty Boothroyd, who was first elected as a Labour candidate).
Wikipedia notes that the term "Blair's Babes" is attributed to the Daily Mail, and has been criticised as trivialising women in politics.
© Haydn Thompson 2023