The next item is the 90-second statement. Jane Hutt.

Diolch, Llywydd. Last week, we celebrated the centenary of the day women were able to stand for Parliament in 1918, and one of the early pioneering women MPs was Edith Picton-Turbervill, featured in Angela John's book, Rocking The Boat: Welsh Women who Championed Equality 1840-1990.

A family plaque for Edith Picton-Turbervill is featured in Ewenny priory in my constituency, where she lived, but it doesn't mention the fact that she was a Labour MP for the Wrekin. In January 1919, Edith, from a staunchly Conservative family, joined the Labour Party. She declared that the Labour Party does its thinking in human terms. She was elected to the Wrekin in 1929, having unsuccessfully stood twice for Parliament in Islington. 

Angela John describes Edith as an able debater, unafraid of asking difficult questions. Most of her speeches concerned the plight of the poorer woman and her children. She was a passionate advocate of women priests and wore a cassock in Parliament, preaching several times in a chapel near Ewenny on the spiritual aspect of the women's movement. She claimed she'd heard better speeches made at meetings of the Mother's Union than many in the House. 

Her great parliamentary achievement came in 1931, when she took a private Member's Bill outlawing the hanging of pregnant women through Parliament. As Angela John describes, her Bill provided that a woman should have the opportunity to state that she was pregnant before the death sentence was pronounced and, if her statement proved correct, this sentence could not then be given. Her first reading of the Bill produced silence in the Chamber. It was unopposed, backed by the Government and became law. 

Edith Picton-Turbervill was inspirational and I pay homage to her here today. 

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) took the Chair.

Thank you.