Why Everyone’s Talking About This Female MP

Sarah Olney Nick Clegg

by Rebecca Cope |
Published on

A speech made by female MP Sarah Olney has been doing the rounds on the Internet this week after she spoke about how we 'underplay the achievements of mothers'.

The newest Liberal Democrat MP was speaking passionately about her experiences as a mother ahead of International Women's Day.

'It often sounds ironic or self-deprecating to refer to the tasks of motherhood as being more taxing than tasks carried out in the professional sphere. But in this case I'm not being ironic it's precisely true,' she said. 'But we are so used to underplaying the work we do as mothers and the work we do in the home that we don't think anyone will take us seriously if we talk seriously about it.'

You can watch her speech in full below.

Before her headline-grabbing speech, Olney was known for knocking Conservative MP and London Mayor hopeful Zac Goldsmith from his seat in Richmond Park. She won by 1,800 votes.

Before that she worked as an accountant for the National Physical Laboratory, and lives with her two children Isabel (7) and Rufus (3) and her husband Ben, who is a town-planner. She grew up in Surrey and studied English Literature at Kings College London.

Olney only recently joined the Liberal Democrat party in July 2015, having previously campaigned for Richmond Park and North Kingston for 20 years.

Her campaign win was largely credited to her views on Brexit - she promised to vote against article 50 if a vote was held. She is also vocally anti a third runway at Heathrow, and has spoken before about her dismay at the breakdown of the Tory-Lib Dem coalition.

Last year she hit the headlines after being forced to quit a radio interview with Julia Hartley-Brewer over Brexit.

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