Briefing against women ministers in Westminster

valdali

In another thread, "quotas" for gender & ethnicity in the workplace were widely deplored.
The article Galaxy kindly linked, says Burnham has been asked to commit to a 50/50 split for ministers and staff. Am I alone in thinking that this is a kind of "quota"?
Personally I think he should look for the most effective and qualified people for each role, & I believe that will include a lot of women, but it should be on merit surely?

Labour were quite open about a minimum quota of women to try to address the imbalance. Lots of complaints at the time, but their argument was that there needed to be a change to the "like me" syndrome that we only saw Cameron lookalikes or Wilson more rugged look and sound.

Certainly, the Tories seemed to try harder with female PMs and now leader of the opposition, but they did not change what went behind - they were happy to have females but only if they acted like male politicians - dictatorial; they could not cope with a collaborative style

But also, yes, root out any misogyny.
Establish an even playing field, so that talent is not ignored because of gender.

I couldn’t imagine Esther McVey putting up with that.

Let's hope he would disapprove of briefing against ANY minister.

Maremia

Yes, go by the talent and skill, not the gender.

Hear, hear 👏👏👏

Agree it’s disgusting behaviour.
Men never behaved so badly when I was working. Preferred to work with men though, to be honest. Women were bitchy!

Yes obviously that is what we think.

If anyone has a problem with the women requesting a change in the boys club culture and not to be anonymously briefed against so be it- we are all entitled to different views.

Yes, go by the talent and skill, not the gender.

The tory party have had leaders of both sexes, ( 4 women) and of course the first black female leader, they do this not via quotas but i think because they see these people firstly as 'tories' rather than women, black, etc. Labour would do well to think about that.

50/50 gender split...

In another thread, "quotas" for gender & ethnicity in the workplace were widely deplored.
The article Galaxy kindly linked, says Burnham has been asked to commit to a 50/50 split for ministers and staff. Am I alone in thinking that this is a kind of "quota"?
Personally I think he should look for the most effective and qualified people for each role, & I believe that will include a lot of women, but it should be on merit surely?

Good to know AB would not tolerate such a thing, if it happens surely?

Some might also say Reform has a "toxic boys club" culture ie evidence of past social media posts e.g. Robert Kenyon- for which no one felt the need to apologise, to the extent Farage instructed Kenyon not to apologise during the Makerfiled Campaign. Thats was uncomfortable to watch his refusal to apologise on Question Time.

I'm sure it happens in other parties- just look at Reform UK- very much a boys club with a dominant leader.

This is not new news. February this year the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party complained about the boys club culture in his party to Keith Stramer. Laura Keunsburg reported on it, ie anonymised briefings against women in the party. Plus article on politics home.com. Blew up at the same time as the Mandelson saga which caused anger and frustration among Labour women particularly. Starmer faced accusations of his administration being a 'boys club' before this also. Starmer met with many to listen to their concerns- not sure if the women have been satisfied Starmer took sufficient action to change the culture- hence perhaps lobbying AB in a hope for more positive response?

From the link *Senior women under Keir Starmer have complained of a “boys’ club” culture, despite Starmer hiring multiple women to his team and making Rachel Reeves the first female chancellor.

But MPs felt female ministers had a disproportionate number of negative stories leaked about them, including the former transport secretary turned Burnham adviser, Louise Haigh, as well as the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, and the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson*

Is anyone discrediting those women who have reported their concerns and raised the issue with AB this week- if so on what basis?

Is there any evidence other than from Burnham?

It has been obvious during his brief tenure as PM that Starmer has a problem with women, but that is a different issue.

It is just more identity politics with little meaning, it is so depressing.

Westminster, politics, governments have often been described having a culture "boys club"- thats not new.

AB appears to be saying if he becomes PM and if inappropriate briefings against women by men happens in his party he would not tolerate it.

Don't have a problem with that and neither are the women LP MPs or party members likely to have a problem with it either.

www.aol.co.uk/articles/andy-burnham-says-end-culture-144558000.html

no paywall here

www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/30/andy-burnham-end-culture-briefing-against-female-ministers

It's Burnham trying to put himself on the right side. Trivial.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/30/andy-burnham-end-culture-briefing-against-female-ministers

To be fair it is an article that doesn't actually say much.

Thanks