Prime Minister backs campaign to raise a statue to Lady Nancy Astor

THE London launch of an appeal backed by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to raise a statue to the first female MP to take her seat in the Houses of Parliament will take place on 28th November - 99 years to the day since Nancy Astor won the Plymouth Sutton by-election.

Theresa May is joined in her support of the appeal by some of the most long-standing and iconic female MPs from both the House of Lords and the House of Commons across all political parties in Britain.

The Prime Minister said: "As the first woman to take her seat in Parliament, Nancy Astor paved the way for the many - but still too few - women who have followed in her footsteps over the last hundred years.

"As she said in her maiden speech, her fellow MPs ‘should not be frightened of what Plymouth sends out into the world' - indeed, Plymouth and the whole UK should be proud of the great strides Nancy Astor made for equality and representation.

"I am proud to serve as the UK's second female Prime Minister in a Parliament with more female MPs than ever before. But I want that number to continue to grow - so I am proud to support this initiative to mark the centenary of Nancy Astor's election with a statue, and hope it will inspire new generations of women and girls to play their full part in our democracy."

Nancy Astor, who was born in America, was elected to Parliament just one year after some British women received the vote, by a huge majority of voters in the west country city of Plymouth. More than 70% of the electorate turned out: the Plymouth people knew they were making history by sending the first woman to Parliament.

To date there is no public statue to Lady Astor and campaigners are raising funds to build a statue that will be unveiled on The Hoe in Plymouth, 100 years to the day since her victory was announced on the steps of Plymouth's Guildhall on 28th November 1919.

"Were it not for someone like Nancy Astor I doubt I would be speaker of the House of Commons, the first woman speaker," said Dame Betty Boothroyd. "What an ordeal it must have been for her to come in there with over 600 men who were all not welcoming at all. I think that the people of Plymouth should be privileged to be associated with this."

"I think Nancy Astor is incredibly important," said Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, "and I think that she is famous for saying that she would leave the door open. I'm absolutely flabbergasted to learn that there isn't already a statue of Nancy Astor in Plymouth so this is a campaign that I think we should all support."

Harriet Harman MP adds: "She was the first to come in to an all-male parliament, a year after - only a year after - women had first been allowed the vote let alone the notion that they should stand up alongside elected men."

It was on the 1st December 1919 that Nancy Astor first walked into Parliament as the first elected female MP to take her seat, facing more than 600 men - most of whom were fearful and hostile to the idea of women in Parliament. That moment changed equality and democracy in the UK irrevocably.

International Astor Scholar Dr Jacqui Turner from the University of Reading where the Astor Papers are held, explains: "This was the first time that a woman had ever walked into that chamber to take her seat and the mood was very, very mixed, it was largely anti, a lot of men were not happy to see her there.

"The importance of her election is that here, for the first time, was a woman who was able to directly influence the parliamentary debate and the writing of the laws of their own land. A responsibility she willingly shouldered for all women. Her courage and resilience in standing alone for almost two years in a hostile House established a platform on which women continue to build today. Her arrival in Parliament ushered in a new type of politician, a public woman, a new perspective and a reminder that there was a female electorate who increasingly demanded to be satisfied."

Nancy Astor was asked to stand for the seat in Plymouth after her husband Waldorf - who previously held the seat - was elevated to the House of Lords when his father died and he inherited his title becoming the 2nd Viscount Astor.

Alice Astor, grand-daughter of Nancy Astor, who is supporting the campaign, said: "I'm thrilled to be supporting this campaign. My grandmother was a trailblazer in politics who was passionate about Plymouth and a statue would be a fitting tribute not only to her service to the people of the city but also to her determination to be the voice of people who until then did not have a voice in Westminster."

Nancy Astor's election came at a time when Plymouth was recovering from the devastating effects of World War I. Some women had only just been given the vote and Lady Astor made a point of canvassing on the streets, terraces, slums, dockyards, fisheries and areas of Plymouth where many politicians had never been before. She also asked the women of the city themselves what they wanted.

In 1919 society was recovering from a war that had seen hundreds of thousands of men lost on the battlefields of Northern France, and 6,000 of the Royal Navy lost in the Battle of Jutland: the military city of Plymouth was a city replete with widows, single parent families and orphans amid the inevitable poverty of a post-war society.

Linda Gilroy held the seat of Plymouth Sutton from 1997 to 2010 and is joined by two other former women MPs from the city - Alison Seabeck (Labour) and Dame Janet Fookes (Conservative) - in supporting the cross-party campaign.

Maria Miller, Chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, added their voice to the call for a statue: "It is, I think, a fantastic thing to do, to remember her contribution, and to make sure that people don't forget that first important step of getting the first woman in the House of Commons.

"I really understand why the people of Plymouth want to see this statue put up to Nancy Astor because it's a way of reminding people of that important heritage and history and that direct link to, I think, one of the most important developments in the House of Commons which was trying to get a better representation of women."

South Devon MP Sarah Wollaston said of her backing the appeal: "I think it's a great shame that we look around London and we look around the country and we see very little representation of these amazing women, so I think that it's absolutely right that we should also celebrate the first woman to take her seat in Parliament and we are all immensely proud in Devon that that was Nancy Astor."

The aim is to unveil the state on 28th November 2019 in the afternoon exactly 100 years since it was announced on the steps of The Guildhall in Plymouth that Lady Nancy Astor had been elected . The statue will be funded by public donations.To donate please visit www.ladyastorstatue100.co.uk

Among the range of rewards available are £1,000 tickets to the VIP unveiling of the statue and a champagne reception afterwards, £500 for an engraved stone around the statue, and many rewards of £15 of the name of a child, their photo and hopes and dreams for the future to be placed inside a time capsule.  You can follow the campaign on social media at @ladyastorsatue or www.facebook.com/ladyastorstatue