‘Young Labour women must take up space’

We don’t talk enough about how utterly exhausting it is to be a young person in politics. 

From the outside, people see enthusiasm, fresh ideas, and optimism. But behind that is a quiet, constant battle – not just to be heard, but to be taken seriously. Every day becomes a fight to prove that you deserve to be in the room at all. 

When you’re young, people assume you’re there for the photo op, for the career moves. They say ‘student politician’ like it’s an insult – as though caring early, organising early and standing up early are somehow things to grow out of. I’m proud to have been part of the student movement within the party as a former national secretary of Labour Students – I met some of the most inspirational people in our movement that way. But when you make it into spaces beyond student politics, you’re still treated as if you haven’t earned the right to speak with authority. 

READ MORE: ‘Division is feeding fear and fury’

I’ve been spoken to as though I was someone’s disobedient child. I’ve been told to prove myself. I’ve been told to ‘wait my turn’. I’ve been dismissed not because of what I said, but because of how old I am. And it’s impossible not to notice how ageism and misogyny intertwine – how young women are simultaneously patronised for being ‘too young’ and policed for not being deferential enough.

There’s a particular type of fatigue that comes with that. You double check your tone. You anticipate the condescension before it arrives. You rehearse your arguments to make them watertight because you know one slip will be read as inexperience rather than human error. You keep your mouth shut, rather than daring to speak up. It’s exhausting – and it’s political.

Because when young people are made to feel like they don’t belong in politics, it doesn’t just hurt us individually. It hurts the movement. Labour has always been strongest when we’ve opened our doors wider – when renewal, not hierarchy, drives us forward. If we believe in empowering working people, then we also have to believe in empowering young people – not just as future leaders, but as leaders now.

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Taking up space isn’t about arrogance. It’s about refusing to apologise for being in the room. It’s about recognising that your lived experience – of education, housing, work, and activism – is not a weakness but a strength. Our generation is living through crises that older colleagues discuss in theory – the housing crisis, insecure work, rising costs, climate anxiety. That perspective is invaluable, and it deserves to be heard without apology. 

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To every young person in politics – especially young women – this is your reminder: you don’t need to earn permission to take up space. You’ve already earned it by showing up, by organising, by caring enough to be here.

Taking up space is not an act of arrogance. It’s an act of survival. And it’s one of the most political things you can do.

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