my guest today, baroness helena kennedy, has been trying to loosen the grip of the patriarchy in the british legal system for five decades. is she winning the battles that really matter? baroness helena kennedy, welcome to hardtalk. nice to be here. it's great to have you. you have had a pretty extraordinary legal career spanning some five decades. yes, i know. you used to talk about a system that smelled of the patriarchy, a man's world. do you still see britain's legal system like that today? oh, yes. i mean, i think that we haven't yet managed to remove that power imbalance. it's still there. and, of course, a lot of work has been done and we've you know, reformed certain areas of law and we've seen women in many more positions of authority and power. but there's still an authority gap. there's still those problems of the ways in which women are treated and the issue of violence against women is still a serious problem even in a country like the united kingdom. we'll definitely get to that very quickly. butjust on the look of the system, in that chair not so long ago, we had the th

coming up later this hour in hardtalk — stephen sackur speaks to baroness helena kennedy, who has beenrying to loosen the grip of the patriarchy in the british legal system for five decades. borisjohnson must "lead or step aside", senior tory and former minister tobias ellwood has told the bbc. it comes as some conservative mps say they've been inundated with emails from constituents, angry about reports that downing street staff held parties during lockdowns. the government has urged people to reserve judgment until senior civil servant sue gray's inquiry is finished. meanwhile labour leader sir keir starmer said it was now in the "national interest" for the prime minister to resign following events in downing street during strict lockdown measures. the moral authority matters in relation to enforcing the covid rules but we've got other massive challenges facing this country. massive challenges. we have a prime minister who is absent, he is literally in hiding at the moment, and unable to lead. and so that is why i have concluded that he has got to go. and of course there's a party ad