Furious female Labour MPs have told Keir Starmer to appoint a woman as his de facto deputy to oversee a “complete culture change” in Downing Street after a series of scandals they say have exposed a No 10 “boy’s club”.
Harriet Harman, one of the party’s most senior figures, urged Starmer to revive the role of first secretary of state, a post previously occupied by Peter Mandelson under Gordon Brown. But she insisted the role must be held by a woman to “transform the political culture in government around women and girls”.
Starmer faced a packed meeting of the parliamentary Labour party on Wednesday after a torrid prime minister’s questions during which he faced repeated questions about Mandelson and his former communications chief Matthew Doyle, who it was revealed had campaigned on behalf of friend who at the time had been charged with possessing indecent images of children.
Harman told Starmer to appoint a woman as first secretary of state, the most senior cabinet member after the prime minister and his de facto deputy. She said it would be “really powerful” if the role was given to a woman.
“We need a complete culture change, and I think everybody recognises that,” Harman told the Guardian. “But it’s easier to say let’s change culture than to make it happen.” The first secretary role would “turbocharge” the government’s pledge to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade, she said. “It would deal with culture change, but it would also hold every government department accountable for what they are doing on women, and empower the work on women that’s happening in each of those departments.”
The fallout of the Mandelson scandal, worsened by the revelations about Doyle, has sparked real anger among Labour ranks and particularly among female MPs. “Anger and grief in huge measure is what those of us from Labour’s progressive wing feel now,” the local government minister, Alison McGovern, wrote in a blog. “It’s our culture that doesn’t properly hear women which meant Peter Mandelson’s power lasted for so long.”
Despite or perhaps because of this, a growing guard has formed around Starmer since the resignation of his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, on Sunday. McSweeney, who said he had advised Starmer to appoint Mandelson as US ambassador, has been replaced by acting joint chiefs of staff Vidhya Alakeson and JillCuthbertson.
The role of director of communications vacated by Tim Allan on Monday has been filled for now by Sophie Nazemi, one of the few veterans of the Corbyn era who has managed to gain Starmer’s trust. Another key name linked with the role is his former director of communications Stephanie Driver, who resigned when Allan was promoted above her last autumn. The reputation of No 10’s political director, Amy Richards, has also strengthened, with her widely seen as playing a pivotal role in improving Starmer’s relationship with his party.
But MPs urged Starmer to go further at the PLP meeting on Wednesday. The Bolsover MP, Natalie Fleet, who became pregnant after being groomed and raped as a teenager, asked the prime minister to launch a national inquiry into the crimes of the former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, telling him that victims had written to No 10 but had not received a reply.
She asked Stamer to meet her and the victims. “These are our victims, this is our Epstein”, she said, adding that English police officers had taken bribes and doctors had checked that victims were virgins.
“I know, as a survivor, that nobody cares,” she said. “Literally, nobody cares. You have to seize the moment right now, people up and down the country saying they care. OK, great, let’s do something about it.”
Fleet said Starmer still had her full support but had to demonstrate that he had listened to women’s concerns, including those in his own party. “I genuinely believe that Starmer is the best we’ve got when it comes to tackling violence against women and girls,” she said.
“If I could pick a prime minister out of the country, I would pick somebody with a record like his. The fact that he’s being derailed to this scale by this drama just feels so ironic, because he genuinely cares. That’s why we need him to do more. We need him to deliver. We need deeds, not words.”
