A women’s rights fringe event scheduled for Monday at the upcoming Labour conference is deliberately withholding its venue location amid security concerns, having already had their exhibition stand application refused by the party’s Business Board “on commercial grounds“. The event, “What Do Women Need From the Labour Manifesto?”, is being organised by the Labour Women’s Declaration, who say the meeting is already sold out – yet unlike virtually every other fringe meeting listed in the conference guide, the location won’t be made public. Attendees will only find out hours before it’s set to start…

The group tells Guido:

“Previous meetings of women campaigning for sex based rights have been disrupted by hostile and at times intimidating protests. Releasing the venue information at the last minute gives less time for such protests to be organised […] We accept the right for anyone to demonstrate, but we also want to guarantee that women speakers and attendees are not intimidated on their way in to our meeting.” 

Given an army of protesters showed up to a similar event last year, it’s not much of a surprise. Rosie Duffield was told not to even attend conference in the first place. Good to see so much progress has been made in the year since…