Dodds didn’t seem to have an answer, though Lee provided a helpful visual clue…

Despite attacking the government for, quite reasonably in the circumstances, pushing back the due date of companies’ gender pay gap reports following the pandemic, Labour have somehow managed to miss the deadline for their own review – even after benefitting from a whole six month delay. A quick browse of the gender pay gap service website reveals the report was required by the October 5; apparently they still haven’t gotten round to it…

Guido reminds co-conspirators what then-Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary Marsha de Cordova said when the delay was announced back in February:

“It is unacceptable that the Government will not reinstate gender pay gap reporting sooner. All the evidence shows that the pandemic is having awful consequences for women’s labour market representation. Now is the time to be dialling up measures to protect against discrimination and unequal pay, not delaying them.”

To be fair to Marsha, it’s no longer her brief. Perhaps the pay gap just isn’t as important to Anneliese Dodds…

Labour LGBT+ have held packed fringe events for the past two days at Conference, and Guido’s noticed a bit of a pattern: the high-profile shadow cabinet panelists (Rayner, Thomas-Symonds, Dodds) have all conveniently left their respective sessions early. Usually just before they’re confronted with awkward questions about Rosie Duffield…

Busy as no doubt they are, this sort of behaviour doesn’t appear to be happening as much at other fringe events; Guido noticed Anneliese Dodds had plenty of time to field questions with the Fabian Society yesterday, and Angela Rayner is, of course, perfectly happy to spend her hours calling the Tories “scum” in front of Labour activists. When it comes to acknowledging the transphobia row in their own party, though, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Thomas-Symonds did at least offer an anodyne soundbite about standing for trans rights in response to one question yesterday, though he soon left afterwards – the Q&A continued for about another 15 minutes.

Credit where it’s due, party veteran Angela Eagle did stick around today, although her vague response didn’t address Duffield by name:

“It’s very important that we treat each other with respect, and that we save a safe space so that we can educate people who may not have come across this before so we don’t drive them away before we’ve faced them with the realities that they may not have thought about…”

Back to school for Duffield it is…

Labour conference hasn’t even started yet and it’s already proving to be a cesspit of contradiction and infighting. According to an email sent to Labour members, the Brighton conference will be an entirely cashless event, and all attendees will need to bring “an alternative means of payment” – despite the fact that former Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds has railed against the “uncontrolled retreat of cash”, and even backed introducing laws that “protect access to cash.” This is the second time Labour’s actions have run entirely contrary to their words recently: earlier this week, Guido revealed the party are paying conference stewards £9.75 an hour, despite pledging to introduce a £10 minimum wage. As always, do as I say not as I do…