In the interests of full transparency, I should say that Rosie Duffield's a friend of mine. We'd probably have been friends no matter where or how we'd met, but we found each other as part of a group of women fighting to retain women's rights.

[Rosie Duffield] and I share more than the occasional meal and a fairly sweary WhatsApp thread. Last month, a man received a suspended prison sentence for sending both of us death threats. Rosie was to be taken out with a gun; I was to be beaten to death with a hammer. The level of threats Rosie has received is such that she's had to hire personal security and was recently advised not to conduct in-person hustings.
Is this what [Keir] Starmer meant, when he talked about toxic, divided debate? A female MP in his own party being intimidated and harassed? Or was he referencing the activists in black masks who turn up at women’s demonstrations with the declared intention of punching "Terfs", an intention that has more than once translated into action? Was he perhaps thinking of the trans activists who sang "f*** you" over a microphone as women from all over the world queued outside FiLia, the feminist conference, to discuss issues like female genital mutilation? It didn’t seem so.
The impression given by Starmer at Thursday’s debate was that there had been something unkind, something toxic, something hard line in Rosie’s words, even though almost identical words had sounded perfectly reasonable when spoken by Blair.

I'm always rather nervous about how you talk about women who are active in politics, whether they want to be talked about as women or as politicians.

“because I thought the voice of women was not heard,” but also cautions that it is not an easy life. Candidates must often fund their own races, making financial security important. Women often get discouraged and quit politics,

In those days, they played politics with love, now it is money and power. That does not mean women cannot be better politicians; they should do it with honesty. For instance, the likes of my mother and Madam Funmilayo Ransome Kuti used the opportunity they had to help a lot of people; but now, we can’t get close to them. You must know what you want to do before going into politics. Our men should stop holding meetings late at nights. In other parts of the world, no political meetings at night. Going into politics does not mean there shouldn’t be time for the family. Many women are brilliant and will deliver if given the opportunity.

For the first time in my life, having been an ambassador for a gender-balanced 50:50 parliament, I would hesitate to encourage other women to come into politics [...] I would have to really think about what I was asking them to do, and putting people into this position when they are going to be on the front line of some pretty shitty abuse.

We have discovered that some women are scared because of the muddy water of politics.

I view this as a calling, and like any calling, it requires grace to fulfill. As a female politician, I do face unique challenges that my male counterparts may not experience. However, I’ve encountered fewer of these obstacles compared to younger female politicians. I can recall only two instances where I received highly offensive, sexually charged comments. Beyond that, the challenges I face are similar to those encountered by politicians in general.

I think the challenge in politics is that somebody is mischievously trying to make the Nigerian woman believe there is problem for her going into politics.

The truth is that politics is tough terrain, but it takes a clear vision, proper planning and execution of plans, commitment, hard work and consistency to succeed. Despite the many challenges, women should not allow themselves to be left out of the process.

Sometimes when women come out, others think they should not be in politics. They prefer to vote for their male counterparts rather than to vote for a fellow woman. But I think whatever the challenge is, women who are interested in politics should summon the courage to venture into it fully.

For some reason, it seems that women face more criticism than men. It’s well-known that women in politics around the world encounter unique challenges, such as limited financial resources to support their careers, intimidation—often from male counterparts and both sexual and verbal harassment, as statistics reveal.

Breaking into and making my mark as a woman in politics was tough

There are just so many complex issues that come in when women are vying for positions in politics – issues that usually suppress women all the time, but not the men.