Annie Kenney's influence was so strong

Jim McMahon MP, Jean Stretton, Oldham Council Leader, Angela Rayner MP and Debbie Abrahams MP with a portrait of Annie Kenney.

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams spoke of the influence she has felt from Saddleworth’s Annie Kenney and other suffragettes on the 100th anniversary of women securing the right to vote.

The first countries to grant women the vote in 1918 include Ireland and Azerbaijan.

But in the UK, it was only women over 30 who owned a property or had a university education that were allowed to vote.

Springhead-born Annie became a leading figure in the Suffragette movement in 1905 when she and Christabel Pankhurst were imprisoned for several days after heckling Winston Churchill and Sir Edward Grey at a rally in Manchester on the issue of votes for women.

Emmeline Pankhurst wrote in her autobiography that this event was the beginning of the Suffragettes’ militant phase and that they went on to interrupt a great many more meetings and events and, as a result, were often imprisoned and treated very badly.

MP Abrahams said: “In marking the centenary of women’s suffrage I remember the life of Annie Kenney, a cotton mill worker from Springhead in my constituency who was the only working class woman to hold a senior position in the Women’s Social and Political Union.

“It is thanks to the many sacrifices made by Annie, and other suffragettes, that I have the opportunity to serve Oldham East and Saddleworth as the 366th female Member of Parliament ever elected.”

Abrahams is a patron for the Annie Kenney Fund, set up by Jim McMahon MP, along with Angela Rayner MP, and Oldham council leader Jean Stretton.

This is to fund a statue in Oldham town centre of Annie.