 In April, I had the privilege of meeting with local campaigners from Swansea DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts), to discuss the UK Labour Government’s recent Green Paper on welfare reform. I want to thank Swansea DPAC and their members for taking the opportunity to meet and engage with me and I want to thank them for sharing their views in an honest, open and sincere discussion.
It is clear from the correspondence I have received, and from the sentiments expressed in my meeting with campaigners and members of Swansea DPAC, that people have deep and concerns about the proposed welfare changes. As MP for Gower, I believe that decisions about welfare must be shaped by the people who rely on it. That’s why I’ve put together a short survey to help gather your views. What you tell me will help shape my submission to the ongoing consultation on the Green Paper. Whether you receive benefits, support someone who does, or simply care about fairness in the welfare system, I want to hear from you. This Labour Government is taking action to renew our nation’s contract with those who served.7/5/2025
Tonia Antoniazzi meets with actor Larry Lamb to support Marie Curie’s Great Daffodil Appeal26/3/2025
I welcome the new Crime & Policing Bill to protect victims of abuse but we must go further.21/3/2025
 Tonia Antoniazzi backs new Crime & Policing Bill to protect victims of abuse but says we must go further.
Tonia Antoniazzi has welcomed the introduction of new legislation to tackle the scourge of violence against women and girls but has said the law must go further to protect victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The new Crime and Policing Bill contains a range of new measures to strengthen enforcement and better protect victims, such as making it easier for courts to issue Stalking Protection Orders, introducing a new offence for spiking and improving information sharing with victims. Several reforms seek to tackle the rise of stalking specifically, which has increased by 10 % over the past year. In South Wales over 16,600 stalking and harassment offences were recorded by the police. Not knowing the identity of an online stalker can be extremely unsettling with victims left in the dark as to whether the offender is known to them, which can put them in more danger. New ‘Right to Know’ guidance will be brought into force, empowering the police to release the identity of an online stalker at the earliest opportunity. This will provide victims who are subject to this chilling crime with greater reassurance that they will be quickly told the identity of the individual threatening them online. Stalking Protection Orders (SPOs) can also ban stalkers from going within a certain distance of their victims or contacting them and can also compel them to attend a perpetrator programme to address the root causes of their behaviour. Currently, however, these can only be applied when an offender is convicted and when a protection order was in place before they went on trial. A BBC investigation earlier this year found that since SPOs were introduced back in 2020, just 1,439 had been issued by the 40 police forces. This is despite over 440,000 offences being recorded by the police over the same period. Under Labour’s new measures, courts will be able to directly apply protection orders on those who have been acquitted if there is enough evidence to suggest that they are still a risk to the victim. Tonia Antoniazzi MP for Gower said “This Labour Government has made the unprecedented commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade and I welcome that we are expanding support for victims of stalking and spiking in Gower and across South Wales. “Victims show tremendous courage to come forward and seek help and our new orders will make that as straightforward as possible. “For too long governments have treated violence against women and girls as an inevitability instead of the emergency that it is. Not anymore. The measures in this Bill are evidence of the beginning of the Government's work to make good on their violence against women and girls ambition." As Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Tonia Antoniazzi MP views this Bill as an opportunity to strengthen the Government's response to the sex trade and its harms. “Commercial sexual exploitation is a key driver of violence against women and girls, and this Bill presents a vital opportunity to take concrete action against pimps and punters and strengthen protections for victims of the sex trade. “That’s why I will be tabling amendments to tackle commercial sexual exploitation. “By tackling this issue head-on, we can make real progress in halving violence against women and girls in a decade." On 18th March, The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced a series of reforms to the welfare system.
I understand that many of my constituents will be worried about what this means for them and their disability benefits, especially in light of the rumours surrounding the announcement. Please be assured that there are no immediate changes and a 12 week consultation is now open for you to give your thoughts. The government have released a series of FAQs which may help you to understand what the changes mean in the short term. Please read on: The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) credibility is at stake if it lets Afghanistan play in the Champions Trophy from 19 February.
I ask why the ICC is happy to ignore its own principles when it comes to Afghanistan. The ICC’s anti-discrimination policy claims to be ‘one of the toughest in world sport’. It says it, ‘aspires to the highest ethical standards’ and is, ‘committed to protecting everyone in cricket from harassment, abuse and harm.’ The ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) claims ‘to protect all cricket played under the auspices of the ICC.’ And yet the Afghan Cricket Board (ACB) has effectively denied women the right to play. Does this not prove that it’s subject to political interference? That it is discriminatory and complicit in the Taliban regime’s policy of brutal misogyny. In 2021 the Taliban raided the homes of female athletes, and many women cricketers fled Afghanistan for their safety. Now the Afghan women’s team is forced to live in exile in Australia. Let that sink in – international cricket players fled for their lives, but Afghanistan is still allowed to play. How can the ICC ever convince fans it’s a genuine champion of the women’s game now? This move will potentially alienate huge numbers of cricket fans. Who wants to support an organisation that appears to turn a blind eye to the Taliban’s appalling erosion of women’s rights? On its website the former chair of the ICC, Greg Barclay, says the organisation is committed to ‘using the power of cricket to build a better future.’ And in the past, the ICC has used its vast power to do just this. From 2000 – 2005 Zimbabwe was suspended by the ICC for political interference in its cricket board. From 1970 until 1991 South Africa was banned from international cricket because of its refusal to let non-white people play. Last month, South Africa’s sports minister Gayton McKenzie said, ‘as a man who comes from a race that was not allowed equal access to sporting opportunities during Apartheid, it would be hypocritical and immoral to look the other way today when the same is being done towards women anywhere in the world’. The ICC is the international federation responsible for the global governance of cricket. Its position on South Africa during apartheid helped influence change in the country. Why not take that stand now, for the women of Afghanistan? Surely anything short of a ban tells the world the International Cricket Council is happy to ignore its own moral code – that it accepts political interference and extreme discrimination. Is this hypocrisy really the spirit of cricket it claims to uphold?
6th January 2025
Dear Richard Gould, We are writing to express our profound concern regarding the England cricket men’s team upcoming match playing Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy next month, given the appalling oppression of women and girls in Afghanistan and the removal of their rights that continues unabated. Upon regaining control of Afghanistan in August 2021, one of the Taliban’s first acts was banning women from sport. They raided the homes of female athletes, some of whom were forced to burn their kits to avoid being identified. The women’s cricket team was disbanded and having fled the country are now in exile. Aside being morally repugnant, this is a direct contravention of International Cricket Council rules that require all test nations to support and fund women’s cricket. As you know, the Afghanistan men’s cricket team is still allowed to compete internationally, while their women’s team is denied the same right. Cricket’s world governing body has not taken any action against the Afghanistan men’s team. Despite members of the former Afghanistan women’s team calling on the ICC to help them form and recognise a refugee team to enable them to play, there has been no progress. As the English team prepares for its upcoming scheduled match to play Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy next month, the former Afghan women’s team remain in exile with no near prospect of being able to compete on the world stage, while back home in Afghanistan no new girls or women are learning to play cricket, or any sport for that matter. This blatant denial of opportunities for Afghan women cricketers is appalling, and forms just one element of the Taliban’s unconscionable oppression of women and girls that continues unabated. Sport was only the first joy to be removed from women in Afghanistan, and since then life for them has become incomprehensibly unbearable, with the Taliban removing their most basic human rights and freedoms at a prolific scale. Women are denied access to schools and universities, have been barred from most forms of employment and have now been denied all healthcare, as they can no longer train as nurses or be treated by male medics. They are banned from beauty salons, stadiums, gyms and parks, cannot travel alone without a male chaperone, dance, sing or drive. Their faces are banned from view, their voices from being heard, even in prayer. Most recently, the Taliban have banned windows through which women might be glimpsed in their domestic spaces. As the world watches this insidious dystopia unfold, women in Afghanistan find themselves erased from the most innocent of daily activities, imprisoned at home, risking torture and public execution if they protest or do not comply. The England and Wales Cricket Board is not blind to this abhorrence. Last year, you confirmed that England would not schedule a bilateral series against Afghanistan while women were banned from sport. Now, with England scheduled to play Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy next month, you have a precious opportunity to extend those principles and condemn this abhorrent oppression. We strongly urge the England Cricket men’s team players and officials to speak out against the horrific treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan under the Taliban. We also urge the ECB to consider a boycott of the upcoming match against Afghanistan in the ICC Champion’s Trophy Group stage on February 26th to send a clear signal that such grotesque abuses will not be tolerated. We must stand against sex apartheid, and we implore the ECB to deliver a firm message of solidarity and hope to Afghan women and girls that their suffering has not been overlooked. Yours sincerely, Tonia Antoniazzi MP Dame Caroline Dinenage MP Sarah Champion MP Debbie Abrahams MP Helen Hayes MP Chi Onwurah MP Rt Hon Sir Roger Gale MP Wendy Chamberlain MP Ruth Jones MP Sharon Hodgson MP Jess Asato MP Jo Platt MP Paula Barker MP Rachel Taylor MP Cathine Fookes MP Rt Hon Lord Hain Baroness Barbara Keeley Rt Hon Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Rt Hon Baroness Morris of Yardley Rt Hon Baroness Winterton of Doncaster DBE Lord Griffiths of Burry Port Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town Rt Hon Baroness Taylor of Bolton Baroness Hazarika MBE Rt Hon Lord Kinnock Rt Hon Baroness Laing of Elderslie CBE Lord David Triesman Rt Hon Baroness Harman KC Kirsteen Sullivan MP Margaret Mullane MP Helena Dollimore MP Ann Davies MP Dan Aldridge MP Rachel Gilmour MP Rt Hon John McDonnell MP Sarah Hall MP Johanna Baxter MP Katrina Murray MP Ruth Cadbury MP Zarah Sultana MP Emily Darlington MP Mary Kelly Foy MP David Smith MP Leigh Ingham MP Adam Jogee MP Joani Reid MP Rosie Duffield MP Jenny Riddell-Carpenter MP Jen Craft MP Dr Allison Gardner MP Kirith Entwistle MP Lizzi Collinge MP Alice Macdonald MP Mrs Sarah Russell MP Rt Hon Valerie Vaz MP Michelle Welsh MP Tracy Gilbert MP Patricia Ferguson MP Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck MP Ben Lake MP Rt Hon Lord Touhig Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe Lord Campbell-Savours Baroness Nye Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Baroness Wilcox of Newport Lord Bach Baroness Blower Lord Watson of Wyre Forest Baroness Lister of Burtersett CBE Lord Shamash Baroness O’Loan DBE MRIA Lord Young of Norwood Green Rt Hon Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee DBE Lord Lucas Baroness Meyer CBE Lord Sandhurst KC Rt Hon Baroness Hughes of Stretford Lord Morrow Baroness Bertin Baroness Drake CBE Lord Watson of Invergowrie Baroness Foster of Oxton DBE Lord Strasburger Rt Hon Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links Baroness Donaghy CBE FRSA The Earl of Leicester Baroness Lea of Lymm CBE Baroness Fullbrook Baroness Helic Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist Rt Hon Liz Saville Roberts MP Mary Glindon MP Marsha De Cordova MP Llinos Medi MP Alicia Kearns MP Brian Leishman MP Claire Hanna MP Rt Hon Sir Desmond Swayne MP Kate Osborne MP Andrew Ranger MP Ms Stella Creasy MP Neil Duncan-Jordan MP Dr Marie Tidball MP Siân Berry MP Grahame Morris MP Robin Swann MP Perran Moon MP Maya Ellis MP Sorcha Eastwood MP Alex Sobel MP Samantha Niblett MP Jon Pearce MP Naushabah Khan MP Sean Woodcock MP Abtisam Mohamed MP Luke Akehurst MP Sarah Edwards MP Dr Beccy Cooper MP Linsey Farnsworth MP Mrs Elsie Blundell MP Anna Dixon MP Dr Simon Opher MP Rt Hon Baroness Anelay of St Johns DBE Baroness Redfern Baroness Swinburne Baroness Harding of Winscomb Baroness Morgan of Huyton Lord Shinkwin Baroness Eaton DBE DL Baroness Mobarik CBE Lord Roberts of Belgravia Baroness Monckton of Dallington Forest MBE Baroness Goudie Baroness Stedman-Scott OBE Lord Jackson of Peterborough Baroness Thornhill MBE Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge Lord Sikka Rt Hon Baroness Royall of Blaisdon Baroness Hodgson of Abinger CBE Lord Woodley Baroness Bray of Coln Lord Strathcarron Baroness Morris of Bolton OBE Baroness Seccombe DBE JP Baroness Finn Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick Lord Farmer Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath Baroness Noakes DBE Rt Hon Lord Bassam of Brighton Rt Hon Baroness Stowell of Beeston MBE Baroness Morrissey DBE Baroness Shields OBE Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn MP Rebecca Paul MP Richard Tice MP Euan Stainbank MP Anna Sabine MP Alison Hume MP Will Stone MP Nigel Farage MP Sarah Dyke MP Deirdre Costigan MP Ms Polly Billington MP Rebecca Harris MP Rt Hon Stuart Andrew MP Mike Wood MP Saquib Bhatti MP Steve Race MP Rt Hon Richard Holden MP Helen Grant MP Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst MP Alison Griffiths MP Charlie Dewhirst MP Rt Hon David Mundell MP Shivani Raja MP Bob Blackman MP Andrew George MP Ben Maguire MP Mr James Frith MP Manuella Perteghella MP Mr Gagan Mohindra MP Martin Wrigley MP |
