Hello and welcome to The Rundown, a podcast from Politics Home with me, Alan Tolhurst.

This week is the second of our episodes over Parliament's summer recess, looking how Labour

performed in her first year in office, in some key policy areas, speaking with experts and

those of the experience, facing the same problems Kirstarmer is trying

to navigate now. My guest today is Sarah Owen, Labour MP for Luton North, and the chair of

the Common Select Committee on Women Inequalities. We'd discuss how this government is doing on its

manifesto commitments to tackle racial injustice and gender inequality, improve the lives

that are disabled, and protect trans people and other marginalised communities.

I began by asking her to give a grade and how a party is doing after 12 months.

I would say probably mixed results in some areas, absolutely brilliantly, that we've seen the dial move incredibly in a way that I never thought we would see, particularly around shared parental leave, around miscarriage bereavement leave,

around NDAs and banning them for sexual harassment and bullying.

Like if we were having that discussion over a year ago, I don't think I would be able to say,

you know, 100% we're in this position right now.

I think the political will was always there, but what the employment rights bill has given us is a

vehicle to actually deliver on some of that. But then I think if you flip it to some of the

other areas of work around LGBT issues, for example, and what the trans community particular

are feeling,

I think we've probably not seen us do as well as we should have done

and as many people hoped for.

They'd waited nearly all their adult lives for a Labour government,

particularly to deliver in the equality sphere.

So I think there are areas that we've done really well with

...