Will Andy Burnham be able to change the “boys club” of cabinet?

Following Sir Kier Starmer’s resignation, it is most likely that Andy Burnham will become Prime Minister on 20^th July.

This will make the former Mayor of Greater Manchester the 20^th person to lead the Labour Party since it’s existence.

No woman has ever led the party permanently and despite the record number of women MPs in the last general election, Downing Street has been accused of misogyny under Starmer.  

Questions are arising as to how Burnham will change things.

Since winning the Makerfield by-election, Andy Burnham has said that he will end the culture of briefing against female ministers if he were to become Prime Minister.

At the same meeting for the women’s parliamentary Labour party, he promised to fire any government aide who undermine the women in his team.

While this is a step in the right direction, there is speculation that the women in senior cabinet positions will be replaced by men.

Many women in the party are fearful that with the return of Burnham, the lack of respect they experienced when he was an MP before, will also return.

There is a deep resentment from the older generation of female MPs. Caroline Flint, a former Labour MP, famously said cabinet was “two-tiered” under Gordon Brown’s premiership, arguing that female cabinet members were treated as “little more than female window dressing”.

And there is resentment now. There is a culture in Downing Street that Starmer has not been able to change, despite the number of women in senior cabinet roles.

Maybe this is a culture that, like most things in the UK, need drastic measures to make a difference. Maybe the change that Burnham is demanding, moving No.10 to Manchester, could bring that change.

Helen MacNamara, the former Deputy Cabinet Secretary in 2020-21, said that moving the Prime Minister’s office to the North of England would be a good idea, “The people who can afford to live and work within commutable distance to [Whitehall] are not representative of the country.”

Therefore, those advising the Prime Minster in Manchester, could shift Downing Street’s current culture to one that encourages female voices, rather than belittles.

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