Why Kemi Badenoch has a point about Labour's women problem – Susan Dalgety
Labour women will eventually have to stop making demands on their male bosses and start exerting their own power
Andy Burnham’s women problem continues. On Tuesday, he strolled into a meeting of the Women’s Parliamentary Labour Party (WPLP) at Westminster to be met with a barrage of complaints about the “boys’ club” culture that permeates the party.
Disgruntled women MPs complained that there was a disproportionate number of negative stories leaked about women ministers, or as veteran journalist Andrew Marr said on his LBC show on Thursday, too many “boozed-up boys briefing against the broads” – a remark that could in itself be considered sexist, even if it was meant in jest.
The women also presented Burnham with a letter listing their demands for his incoming government, which included a commitment that at least half of his government should be women, a female Deputy Prime Minister, and a minister of state for women sitting in the Cabinet. It also included a demand for “zero tolerance” of bullying, misogynistic briefings and sexual harassment.
And it argued that treating women as second-class MPs damaged the government. “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 sideline the voices of women makes us a weaker government,” it said.
Faced with an angry horde of women, Burnham had no option but to promise to change the culture. It is reported that he told the meeting: “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 he insisted that he never had, nor ever would, describe himself as Labour’s “first woman Prime Minister”, a phrase used by a “senior Labour figure” quoted in the Spectator last week.
There is no doubt that Burnham is sincere in his support for a balanced government. The backroom team that delivered his astonishing elevation from Mayor of Greater Manchester to Prime Minister in a matter of weeks was dominated by strong Northern women, such as former Transport Secretary Lousie Haigh and Knowsley MP Anneliese Midgley.
I believe he will do his best to ensure that half his government is female from the top down, even if it means disappointing one of the two Miliband brothers, Ed and David, who are said to be desperate to be Chancellor and Foreign Secretary respectively. As one female Cabinet minister said this week, “You cannot have more Milibands than women in the top jobs. That kind of thing matters.”
But as recent history has proved, Labour’s ‘woman problem’ is not just about the numbers. Since the late 1990s, the party has used a range of positive action measures (PAMs) to increase the number of women candidates and elected members at both Holyrood and Westminster, from all-women shortlists to twinning constituencies.
In the 2024 general election, nearly half of all Labour’s candidates were women and 190 (46 per cent) of its MPs are female. Under Keir Starmer’s leadership, for the first time in history, three of the great offices of state are currently held by women. And nearly half of his government ministers are women.
‘Toothless’ demands
The real issue at play here is the fact that, in its 120-year history, no woman has come close to being Labour leader, not even the Red Queen, Barbara Castle, considered by many to be the best Prime Minister Labour never had. Labour women may have won the numbers game, but they still can’t smash the glass ceiling.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has no patience for her Labour sisters. In a blistering column in the Times this week, she mocked them for asking Burnham for ministerial quotas. “If none of Labour’s women are prepared to get their hands dirty and challenge him for the leadership, their demands are toothless,” she said.
She dismissed Labour claims that the Tories have only elected four female leaders since 1975 because Conservative women “act like men”. “The lazy stereotyping of confidence and assertiveness as male traits is yet more proof that Labour still don’t know what a woman is and probably never will,” she said.
And she argued that the letter from the WPLP was not “a confident demand from a powerful lobby”, but instead a “grievance note” from women operating on the “failed model of identity politics”.
‘A bit sexist, innit’
Badenoch delights in the rough and tumble of politics – her weekly jousts with Burnham at Prime Minister's Questions promise to be fun – and while it pains me to say it, she may have a point. Why has Labour never had a female leader? Jess Phillips, who stood for leader in 2020, told the Hay Literary Festival recently that “like all institutions, it’s a bit sexist, innit”, which is perfectly true.
But there comes a point when Labour women will have to stop making demands on their male bosses and start exerting their power. Even if it seems that almost every Labour MP now backs Burnham, his audacious campaign to become Prime Minister began with only a few determined supporters. He won the top job because he believed he was the right man for the job and nothing was going to stand in his way.
Badenoch is wrong to dismiss quotas. They are essential to secure a balance between men and women, and I would argue there should be legislative quotas to ensure that all parties – including the Tories – return an equal number of male and female representatives. But she is right to exhort Labour women to go and fight for what they believe is “truly theirs”.
My generation of Labour women broke down the barriers that stopped women from being selected for winnable seats. It’s now time for the next generation to show what they’re made of and I hope the next Labour leader after Burnham was at that meeting on Tuesday.
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