FORMER TUC women’s committee chair Annette Mansell-Green warned trade unionists to be vigilant in opposing the far right and defending women’s rights as she received her TUC gold badge today.

Ms Mansell-Green said her work on the women’s committee, which she first joined in 1996, had been among the most important work in her trade union career.

“We’re meeting here this week and we’ve had some fantastic debates but it’s against the backdrop of the rise of the far right,” she said.

“I know you’ve debated that, but what it means for women and women’s sex-based rights should be a worry to all of us. We’re on the precipice of women’s rights going backwards in this country and it’s up to all of us to work together in unity to ensure that the progress that’s been made over the last couple of hundred years is not lost because we haven’t organised and we haven’t put our sisters first in the fight against the far right.”