MP Hannah Spencer pays tribute to Oldham suffragette Annie Kenney

Oldham's suffragette heritage has been honoured in Parliament by the town's newest MP, who paid tribute to Annie Kenney during her first speech in the House of Commons. Hannah Spencer, the Green Party MP for Gorton and Denton, used her maiden speech to highlight the women who paved the way for her presence in Parliament, including the Springhead-born mill worker who became a leading suffragette.

Speaking during International Women's Day debates, Spencer said: 'Where I'm from, we give a nod to the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, we remember the farm worker and seamstress Hannah Mitchell, the Trade Unionist Mary Quaile and the mill worker Annie Kenney.' The MP revealed she even named one of her greyhounds after Elsie Plant, another Greater Manchester suffragette from nearby.

Annie Kenney's journey from child mill worker to co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union represents a remarkable chapter in Oldham's history. Born in 1879, she was arrested in 1905 alongside Christabel Pankhurst for interrupting a Liberal rally at Manchester's Free Trade Hall. Kenney would go on to be imprisoned 13 times for her activism.

Her legacy is literally set in stone in Oldham town centre, where a statue was unveiled in Parliament Square in 2018 to mark the centenary of women gaining the vote. The unveiling drew hundreds of people, including actress Maxine Peake, with many dressed in suffragette colours of green, white and purple. Spencer described it as 'bittersweet' to honour these change-makers while acknowledging that more progress is still needed.