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| Angela Eagle's extra title due to Labour 'women row', report says | Angela Eagle's extra title due to Labour 'women row', report says |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| A member of Jeremy Corbyn’s team has been overheard saying they would give Angela Eagle an extra honorary title because they were “taking a fair amount of shit” about the lack of women in top jobs. | A member of Jeremy Corbyn’s team has been overheard saying they would give Angela Eagle an extra honorary title because they were “taking a fair amount of shit” about the lack of women in top jobs. |
| The new Labour leader has been criticised for giving the top three shadow cabinet positions to men – with John McDonnell as chancellor, Andy Burnham as home secretary and Hilary Benn foreign secretary. With Tom Watson elected deputy leader, the five most senior people in the party are male. | |
| Related: Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet in full | Related: Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet in full |
| Corbyn’s team has stressed that more than half the shadow cabinet is female and that Angela Eagle is both shadow business secretary and shadow first secretary of state. | Corbyn’s team has stressed that more than half the shadow cabinet is female and that Angela Eagle is both shadow business secretary and shadow first secretary of state. |
| However, a conversation overhead by a Sky News reporter revealed that this extra title was an afterthought. According to the reporter, a male voice in the meeting between Corbyn and the chief whip, Rosie Winterton, said: “We are taking a fair amount of shit out there about women. We need to do a Mandelson. Let’s make Angela shadow first minister of state. Like Mandelson was. She can cover PMQs. Tom [Watson] knows about this. Do the Angela bit now.” | |
| Corbyn has defended the appointments, telling reporters: “You’re living in the 18th century. That’s when the great offices of state were decided. We have a shadow cabinet of a majority of women covering all areas of policy and public life and I think it’s a great team. And it reaches out to the entire party and I think that is a bit of an achievement, if I may say so.” | Corbyn has defended the appointments, telling reporters: “You’re living in the 18th century. That’s when the great offices of state were decided. We have a shadow cabinet of a majority of women covering all areas of policy and public life and I think it’s a great team. And it reaches out to the entire party and I think that is a bit of an achievement, if I may say so.” |
| There are now 31 people in the shadow cabinet, 16 of whom are women. However, some of them are in more junior roles and have been invited to attend top table for the first time. They include Luciana Berger as shadow minister for mental health, working under the shadow health secretary, and Gloria De Piero as shadow minister for young people and voter registration. | |
| Senior Labour women have expressed their frustration that none of the top jobs is going to female colleagues. Janet Royall, the leader of the House of Lords under Ed Miliband, said she was “concerned and dismayed at the lack of women at the top of my party”. | |
| “I applaud … [that] there will be equal numbers of men and women in the shadow cabinet. And maybe Jeremy does believe the shadow international development portfolio is as improtant as the Treasury. But the thing is the outside world does not think that. Maybe we can change the culture of our party, parliament and the country, but they are not [thinking that] at the moment,” Baroness Royall said. | “I applaud … [that] there will be equal numbers of men and women in the shadow cabinet. And maybe Jeremy does believe the shadow international development portfolio is as improtant as the Treasury. But the thing is the outside world does not think that. Maybe we can change the culture of our party, parliament and the country, but they are not [thinking that] at the moment,” Baroness Royall said. |
| “The fact [is] that we’ve got Jeremy, Tom, Sadiq [Khan] in London, Marvin Rees in Bristol, and now all these other top jobs in the shadow cabinet have gone to men. Like many other people I have always done whatever I could to make sure there were visible women at the top of the party and now they are not there. Visually, it is bad.” | “The fact [is] that we’ve got Jeremy, Tom, Sadiq [Khan] in London, Marvin Rees in Bristol, and now all these other top jobs in the shadow cabinet have gone to men. Like many other people I have always done whatever I could to make sure there were visible women at the top of the party and now they are not there. Visually, it is bad.” |
| Royall also said it could be time to look at changing the rules to make sure there is gender balance at the top of the party, although she would have hoped any leader would have done this voluntarily. | Royall also said it could be time to look at changing the rules to make sure there is gender balance at the top of the party, although she would have hoped any leader would have done this voluntarily. |
| She added: “It’s a retrograde step not to have women at the top of the party, although there are some fantastic women who have got jobs, like Angela Smith in the House of Lords. It is great that Angela Eagle is there to deputise for him, but that is still deputising. Great and all that, but not good enough.” | She added: “It’s a retrograde step not to have women at the top of the party, although there are some fantastic women who have got jobs, like Angela Smith in the House of Lords. It is great that Angela Eagle is there to deputise for him, but that is still deputising. Great and all that, but not good enough.” |
| Another female MP, who turned down the chance to be a shadow minister, said: “It’s self-evidently bad. People feel really connected with our achievements on making sure we have a balanced team, and for him to inexplicably overturn that in one reshuffle.” | |
| She suggested there would be a lot of anger at the party’s women’s conference later this month and that the women’s parliamentary party could mobilise to force changes in the rules to ensure equality at the top. | She suggested there would be a lot of anger at the party’s women’s conference later this month and that the women’s parliamentary party could mobilise to force changes in the rules to ensure equality at the top. |
| “There is only really one way to resolve it, which is to change the rules. But some of these people have got to have a long hard look at themselves and why their own sense of equality is not damaged or besmirched by the outcome of this.” | “There is only really one way to resolve it, which is to change the rules. But some of these people have got to have a long hard look at themselves and why their own sense of equality is not damaged or besmirched by the outcome of this.” |
| Diana Johnson, former shadow Home Office minister, was one of the first to comment, saying it was “so very disappointing – old-fashioned male-dominated Labour politics in the top positions in shadow cabinet”. | |
| Melanie Onn, MP for Grimsby, said later that people should give Corbyn a chance but added he had so far been “rubbish on gender in top jobs”, while Jess Phillips, MP for Birmingham Yardley, said in a tweet that she felt sad about the situation. | |
| She added that the shadow chancellor “should have been a woman … end of” and that “if this was Cameron, we would be apoplectic”. |