• WHO would have thought electing some women would cause such controversy in Hampstead & Kilburn Labour Party?

The letter you received from Jill Hood (There’s a history of women here…, March 14), a member, bizarrely tries to argue even though the Constituency Labour Party has never had a female chair when we were Hampstead & Highgate we did have a female chair in the 1980s and therefore this makes it OK. What rubbish.

Since Hampstead & Kilburn’s creation in 2006 we have not had a female chair and it’s shameful that the last time a woman was in charge on the Hampstead side was the 1980s.

Sadly the controversy surrounding our recent annual meeting hinges on the fact that a tiny minority of members are outraged that they had to vote for some women, in line with Labour Party rules on gender balance, stating that at least 50 per cent of officers have to be women.

They are even more outraged that a woman was elected as chair; this would be comical if it wasn’t so utterly sexist.

REBECCA SHIRAZI
Vice-Chair (Campaigns)
Hampstead & Kilburn Labour Party