RECOGNITION OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF ELEANOR RATHBONE TO WOMEN IN POLITICS

That this House notes the pioneering role of Eleanor Rathbone in the integration of women into the political life of the UK in equal status, which other campaigners had difficulty matching; further notes her strategic role in the development of family allowances, as child benefit was then called, and her position as a leader in the campaign for the protection of women in Britain's colonial empire, including preventing female circumcision; notes her role in the defence of democratic political ideals in the face of Nazism and fascism, having begun the campaign against Hitler in 1933 within months of his succession to power; and calls on the House to recognise the importance of Eleanor Rathbone by renaming a committee room in the Palace of Westminster in her honour.