LABOUR celebrated International Women’s Day by inviting two of the heroes of the Dagenham strike for equal pay to address a special shadow cabinet meeting, writes Luke James. 

Dora Challingsworth and Pamela Brown, former Ford sewing machinists, shared their experience of leading the successful 1968 strike that inspired the film Made in Dagenham.

The pair also posed for photos with leader Jeremy Corbyn and his team outside Dagenham town hall, where the shadow cabinet had travelled by bus. 

But any backslapping was cut short by research showing that only one in five leaders of Labour-run local authorities are women. 

Analysis of 100 Labour groups by the party’s women’s network also found that 40 per cent of its councillors are women. 

The best council for representation is Carlisle, where 50 per cent of Labour members are women, including 67 per cent of the cabinet members. 

The worst is Crawley, where just 21 per cent of Labour councillors are women and none are in the ruling cabinet.