London, Feb. 1: Perhaps it is a little patronising to describe them as “Blair’s babes” — the media term for Tony Blair’s female foot soldiers — but a formidable group of 10 Labour women MPs from the House of Commons is to hit Calcutta on February 8, it was confirmed in London today.

“It is an all women delegation from the Labour Friends of India, and it will be looking at women’s issues,” said Vikas Pota, the director of the organisation which aims to strengthen relations and understanding between the world’s oldest and largest democracies.

For the women, one of the highlights of the Calcutta visit will be attending an Indian wedding.

“We have been invited by Mahendra Jalan, a businessman whose son, I understand, is getting married to a girl from the Jhunjhunwala family,” said Pota, the only man in the group.

“In Calcutta, we shall meet the chief minister, the governor and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (officials),” said Pota.

The MPs will review the work of projects in Bengal that have been funded by Britain. The issue of Peter Bleach is unlikely to come up unless the Briton, who has been serving a life sentence in Calcutta for his part in the Purulia armsdrop, has not been released by then.

“We have not been briefed about him,” said Pota.

This appears to be an opportunity for Calcutta to present itself as a confident, prosperous city, rather than the grateful recipient of British aid.

The delegation leaves on Tuesday for Delhi where the British MPs are expected to meet the feisty females of India.

“The British High Commission has organised a party,” said Pota. “We expect to meet a number of politicians, including Sonia Gandhi, Najma Heptulla and Sheila Dixit.”

.K. Advani and Yashwant Sinha as well as representatives of various NGOs are also scheduled to have meetings with the British politicians.

In Jammu, women lined up to meet the delegation include Mehbooba Mufti, the daughter of Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.

The MPs, who come from constituencies from all over the UK, include Dari Taylor (Stockton North); Oona King (Bethnal Green and Bow); Laura Moffatt (Crawley); Sandra Osborne (Ayr); Judy Mallaber (Amber Valley); Phyllis Starkey (Milton Keynes South West); Julie Morgan (Cardiff North); Diana Organ (Forest of Dean); Jackie Lawrence (Presell Pembrokeshire); and Christine Russell (Chester).

King, who is the daughter of a black father and a Jewish mother, represents a constituency with a large proportion of Bangladeshis. “I am glad I’m not another white man in a suit — I have nothing against white men in suits but the House of Commons is full of them,” she had said once.

In fact, almost everyone is agreed that the House of Commons could do with more women, but Labour has in the past considered and rejected all women shortlists. In 1987, there were only 41 women in the Commons, representing 6 per cent of the total; by 2001, that position had improved to 118 MPs — 18 per cent.

In recent years, women MPs have raised a wider range of issues at the Commons — from the need to have many more of them to decent office hours that would enable them to enjoy family life as well. They want the place to be less of an old boys’ club.