Our thanks to Ray for commenting as follows on Jacob Rees-Mogg’s “Labour Lurches Leftwards”:

“Harriet Harman already said she wanted a female replacement for Rayner back in September (Not just a woman actually, but a woman from outside London): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c059z4g836eo so this latest demand is just her using the Epstein/Mandelson fallout to get what she always wanted.

She also has plenty of previous form when a role opens up of demanding it is filled by a woman. Here in 2018 she calls for Corbyn’s successor as Labour leader to be a woman and says men should aspire only to be deputy leader: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/harriet-harman-says-labours-next-leader-must-be-a-woman/a/115568200.html She repeated this demand in August 2024 when discussing who should follow Starmer as Labour leader: https://news.sky.com/story/male-labour-mps-should-strive-for-deputy-and-back-a-woman-when-picking-successor-to-starmer-says-harman-13193458

She even suggested the next ‘Doctor Who’ must be a woman in 2017 and said a man should be the female doctor’s assistant so “she could tell him what to do.” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4178544/The-Doctor-woman-says-Harriet-Harman.html

Lisa Nandy has also been prominent in the last couple of days claiming briefings from No. 10 were “dripping with misogyny.” Nandy also appeared in her ministerial role at the Paris Olympics and when interviewed by Eurosport the female interviewer mentioned that it was the first Olympic Games to achieve full gender parity and Nandy responded: ” It’s better than that from a Team GB perspective – we’ve sent more women to these Olympic Games than men.” https://www.tntsports.co.uk/olympics/olympic-games-paris-2024/2024/lisa-nandy-talks-up-the-power-of-sport-at-paris-2024-dreaming-big-about-the-olympics_vid2203971/video.shtml?welcome=eurosport (roughly about 1 minute in). Given that the cabinet is already roughly 50% female, Badenoch’s “Boys Club” jibe really doesn’t seem appropriate, and from their own past history, the parliamentarians jumping on the bandwagon seem to want far more than gender parity. There’s also the other side of the coin too. That Belfast Telegraph article states that when Harman became an MP in 1982 parliament was 97% male, well that is roughly equivalent to the current prison population in England and Wales. What are Harman, Nandy and Labour doing to bring gender parity to that gender gap? The exact opposite in fact, they are already doing everything they can to increase that gender gap, and hiring a female deputy to “tackle misogyny” will no doubt only increase those efforts to widen the gap even further.”

—————————-

If you’d like email notifications of our new blog pieces, please enter your email address in the box near the top of the right-hand column and click ‘Subscribe’.

We shall shortly be posting this piece on our X channel.

Our YouTube channel is here.