Starmer faces call to appoint woman to first secretary of state role

3 hours agoJoshua Nevett,Political reporterandNick Eardley,Political correspondent

BBC

Senior female Labour parliamentarians have urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to appoint a woman to a new powerful role at the top of government.

The prime minister faced calls to name a woman as his first secretary of state – currently a vacant post – during a meeting of female Labour MPs and peers in Parliament.

Two women in the room said Sir Keir had agreed to consider the proposal, as well as making tackling misogyny one of his government’s missions.

Sir Keir attended the packed meeting after Prime Minister’s Questions, where Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused him of running a “boys’ club” in Downing Street.

The prime minister’s position was teetering a few days ago and the meeting was another attempt to shore up support among his MPs.

He has faced calls to resign over his decision to appoint Lord Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US, despite knowing about the peer’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Sir Keir’s judgement is also being questioned over the peerage given to former communications chief Lord Doyle, who lost the Labour whip over his links with a convicted sex offender.

Both issues came up at PMQs and Sir Keir had to confront them again during the meeting with the Women’s Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) on Wednesday.

The BBC has been told Sir Keir reiterated his apology for the appointment of Lord Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US.

It is understood Sir Keir said he looked forward to working with the Women’s PLP on tackling misogyny and doing more to achieve cultural change.

A source in the room said it had been a positive meeting and the prime minister had understood the need to end a “boys’ club” mentality in No 10.

The senior Labour figure described the prime minister as being in “listening mode” and described him as a “feminist ally” who did not want to “mansplain”.

“He said he wanted a culture change across government,” the source said.

Labour MP Natalie Fleet, who attended the meeting, said the suggestion of appointing a female first secretary of state was put to him by former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman and he had promised to “take it away”.

The first secretary of state is a role which, historically, has had similar standing and functions to that of deputy prime minister, a post currently held by David Lammy.

Previous holders of the post of first secretary of state include Dominic Raab, Damian Green and Lord Mandelson, during former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government.

Barbara Castle was the first woman to be appointed first secretary of state, when Harold Wilson was prime minister in the 1960s.

Fleet said it would be “incredible” if a woman was given that role in Sir Keir’s government.

The Labour MP for Bolsover said that during the meeting, the prime minister committed to meeting victims of sexual violence.

“There are horrendous things that happened to girls and nobody cares and nobody listens,” Fleet told reporters outside the meeting room.

She said Sir Keir was “the best bet that we’ve got”.

“He cares and he is going to deliver,” Fleet said. “And it’s my job to hold him to account. So this feels like a real opportunity out of the worst possible situation.”

Labour MP Rachael Maskell, who was also at the meeting, said the prime minister has “the opportunity to prove he has understood the seriousness of the situation”.

She was one of the first MPs to call for the prime minister to stand down, saying his position was untenable.

At PMQs, Sir Keir defended his former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who resigned at the weekend over his role in pushing for Lord Mandelson to be appointed as ambassador.

He said: “I’ve accepted responsibility and apologised for the mistakes that I’ve made.”

The Conservative leader said the prime minister “likes to claim he cares about violence against women and girls”.

Badenoch said: “The truth is he only cares about the victims when he’s trying to save his own skin.”

But Sir Keir defended his government’s record on protecting women and girls against violence.

A source close to the prime minister rejected suggestions of a “boys’ club” in Downing Street, saying there were a number of “highly qualified and capable women that work in Number 10” including cabinet ministers and special advisers “across the whole government who are often forgotten in all of this”.