Why Lestor?
Socialist Organiser1981 1981-11-26Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
Reader report 24 Oct 2026: the machine split had opened this page with the last lines of Susan Carlyle's Victory in Nursery Fight and a Women's Fightback advert; the report now has its own page and the advert is dropped. Transcribed from the scan 25 Oct 2026 ('Labout' as printed). Victory in Nursery Fight, by Susan Carlyle (p. 2).
Proofed text: read against the scan word by word; spelling, punctuation and wording are as printed.
Scan page 2
THE appointment of a frontbench spokesperson on women's rights is to be welcomed. But the obvious question is: why on earth Joan Lestor?
First, she has never shown the slightest interest in, commitment to, or understanding of, the fight against women's oppression. She isn't, for instance, a member of the NEC Women's Rights Study Group, or of the Women's Sub-committee of the NEC.
The obvious, indeed the only, candidate for the job is Jo Richardson. She has been the point of contact between Labout at that level and the women's movement.
She campaigned tirelessly, in committees and on the streets against the Corrie Bill. Before that, as a new MP, her Private Member's Bill brought the issue of domestic violence into Parliament.
She has fought for every positive change that has been won for women in the Labour Party — including the creation of the post that Joan Lestor has just landed herself out of the blue.
Not only is the appointment of Joan Lestor a slap in the face for Jo Richardson. It actually threatens the work she is trying to do by elbowing her out of the way.
The explanation for the inexplicable is not hard to find. Jo Richardson, though a long-standing associate of Michael Foot, and his campaign organiser in the leadership election a year ago, made the mistake of also campaigning for Tony Benn for Deputy Leader. Joan Lestor got the prize by abstaining in that election.
RACHEL LEVER