Andy Burnham has vowed to stamp out the culture of briefing against female ministers if he becomes Prime Minister, telling a meeting of the women's Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) that he would sack anyone in his team for launching sexist attacks.
Burnham's Pledge to Change Culture
Speaking at the meeting, Burnham said: “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.” He also stated, “I want to put on record that I never have and never will describe myself as the first female Labour PM.”
The pledge follows complaints from senior Labour women about what they claimed was a pattern of negative briefings to the media about female ministers. Burnham also criticised an anonymous party figure's comments to The Spectator last week, who claimed he would be “Labour’s first woman prime minister” because of his “unashamedly female agenda” focusing on health, education, family finances, and safer streets. The remark enraged MPs and highlighted tensions over Labour's failure to elect a female leader, while the Conservative Party has had four female leaders, including three prime ministers.
Persistent Complaints of Misogyny
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy previously said that “some of the briefings have been absolutely dripping with misogyny,” and 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.
Keir Starmer has repeatedly condemned negative briefings against colleagues and appointed a number of women to top jobs in No10, including Rachel Reeves as the first female Chancellor, Yvette Cooper as Foreign Secretary, and Shabana Mahmood as Home Secretary. However, complaints persisted about attacks against senior women.
Pressure for Gender Balance in Cabinet
Burnham is already under pressure to appoint women to top jobs in his prospective Cabinet. Ahead of the meeting, Labour’s female MPs wrote to him urging him to ensure half of his No10 staff are women and to appoint a female deputy prime minister. The letter, first reported by LBC, stated: “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.”
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.”
