Andy Burnham told a meeting of the women’s parliamentary Labour party (PLP) that he would sack anyone in his team for launching sexist attacks and called for a change of culture
Andy Burnham has said he’ll stamp out the culture of briefing against female ministers if he gets the keys to No10.
The would-be Prime Minister told a meeting of the women’s Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) that he would sack anyone in his team for launching sexist attacks and said a change of culture was needed.
It follows complaints from senior Labour women about what they claimed was a pattern of negative briefings to the media about female ministers.
He also hit out at comments made to The Spectator last week by an anonymous party figure, who claimed he would be “Labour’s first woman prime minister” because of his “unashamedly female agenda” with interest in areas like health, education, family finances and safer streets.
The remark enraged MPs, and highlighted tensions over Labour’s failure to elect a female leader. The Conservative have had four, including three PMs.
Mr Burnham told the meeting: “Culture really does matter and we need to change that culture. I want to make it clear that if anyone in my team was found to have done that [negative briefing] they would be out of the door. Their feet wouldn’t touch the floor.
“And I want to put on record that I never have and never will describe myself as the first female Labour PM.”
Keir Starmer has repeatedly condemned negative briefings against colleagues, and appointed a number of women to top jobs in No10. He also named Rachel Reeves as the first female Chancellor, and the other great offices of state are held by Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, and Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary.
But complaints persisted about attacks against senior women. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy previously said that “some of the briefings have been absolutely dripping with misogyny”, while Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said last year that she had been the victim of “sexist briefings”.
Former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh also claimed there was a pattern of sexist and misogynistic leaks.
Mr Burnham is already coming under pressure to appoint women to top jobs in his prospective Cabinet. Ahead of the meeting, Labour’s female MPs wrote to him to urge him to ensure half of his No10 staff are women and to appoint a female deputy PM.
“Rooms where decisions are being made are often closed to us, leading to blind spots in appointment decisions and policy development.
“The tendency of previous leaderships to side line the voices of women makes us a weaker government,” according to the letter, first reported by LBC.
The group also said it had repeatedly “raised concerns about structural misogyny, the culture in No 10, bullying behaviour being rewarded, sexual harassment being ignored and engagement with both the party and the PLP being inadequate”.