Candidate for Women's Equality Party to stand in Milton Keynes Council elections

Jane Whild is standing as Candidate for the Women’s Equality Party in Newport Pagnell North & Hanslope ward.

An administrator at the Open University, she is an equality and diversity champion and has campaigned for misogyny to be recorded by the Thames Valley Police.

She has also asked Milton Keynes Council to acknowledge and address the high rates of violence against women and girls.

When women’s needs are equally considered, everyone in the community benefits, she says.

In November last year Milton Keynes Council committed to become a White Ribbon authority under the White Ribbon Campaign, which is a global movement of men and boys working to end male violence against women and girls

Jane said: “If elected, I will ensure that the council regularly reports on the progress of their White Ribbon actions for engaging men in violence prevention. I will also ensure that ending violence against women and girls remains high on the council’s list of priorities, on a par with the worrying escalation of knife crime in Milton Keynes.”

Jane said violence and sexual offences are the most common crimes in her ward.

"The annual Milton Keynes Crime Survey showed that only one in three women feel safe on our streets at night...Women and girls must be free to go about their daily lives without the fear of violence.”

She has also vowed to tackling the spiralling cost of living crisis. “Women will feel the economic shock hardest because of the pay and pension gaps that they face. We are still reeling from picking up most of the unpaid care during the pandemic.”

Jane would like to extend eligibility of 30 hours of free childcare to parents in training or education and to single parents, to help them get into employment if they so choose.

She also wants to “change the way politics is done” and, if elected, intends to seek a seat on the council’s Development Committee, where she says women are under-represented.