Comment

We can’t have a boys’ club in parliament – here’s why

For the first time in a decade, Rishi Sunak is presiding over the retrograde position of not having women in any of the top cabinet jobs, writes Lyanne Nicholl. We shouldn’t stand for it. Only when we get true representation will we get fair policy and governance

Tuesday 14 November 2023 19:20 GMT

A meeting of the new-look cabinet following Sunak’s reshuffle (PA)

In the wake of the Covid inquiry, where Helen MacNamara highlighted how neglecting women’s voices resulted in poor policy-making, you’d be forgiven for thinking that our prime minister might heed the moral of this story and make an effort to make his cabinet more gender-balanced. Instead, he has opted to drop the number of women in his cabinet to under 33 per cent and ensured that the top four jobs are now taken by men. Meanwhile, the cabinet is now 5 per cent less ethnically diverse.

What we saw on Monday is a blow to equality and representation. Not only are the top jobs now “jobs for the boys”, but they are also a very particular type of boy. The public school and Oxbridge-educated type. Out of 350 MPs (88 of whom are women and 23 are people of colour), why could the prime minister not find the talent he felt he needed to fill the most important governing roles in the country? Is there a pipeline problem here?

The appointments of Victoria Atkins and Esther McVey take the total percentage of women in cabinet to 33 per cent, which is thankfully higher than the 24 per cent of women in the Conservative Party overall but falls below the 34 per cent of women in government. When you think that 51 per cent of the UK population is female, it is not hard to see that there remains a glaring gender imbalance at the highest level in our country.

In 2022 Oliver Dowden signalled that the Conservative Party should be moving toward fairer representation, in the wake of a scandal about a sitting MP watching porn in the House of Commons. Candidate lists should “reflect the fact that half the population are women” he said as he built on comments from then prime minister Boris Johnson. “There is still one first that is overdue… 50/50 representation in our parliament.”

But what we are seeing now is not only a ruling party with only a quarter of women MPs, but also a rollback on diversity in cabinet.

One has to hope that talking about gaining greater representation in parliament is not just lip service messaging, rolled out when yet another scandal hits Westminster. The parties could ensure they are taking a close look at both the selection process and the culture within parliament, to ensure they are attracting the brightest and best women – from all backgrounds – crucially in the right numbers.

We also need to ensure that senior civil servants and special advisers are also duly representative. But culture also needs to change: as both Helen MacNamara and Professor Yvonne Doyle showed throughout the Covid inquiry – women’s voices need to be heard.

Beyond the reams of research available that underscores the need for gender balance in decision making, it is also – quite frankly – just plain common sense (at least they have Esther McVey to help them with that now).

Elected bodies that do not truly represent the country and community they serve cannot ably develop fair and successful policies. Rishi Sunak is now presiding over the retrograde position of not having women in the top jobs for the first time in a decade.

Monday 13 November will be remembered as the day when gender parity took a new blow – and women shouldn’t stand for it. They should stand for office instead. Only when we get true representation will we get fair policy and governance, which can address areas of our lives which are far too often neglected.

As Isabel Hardman says in Why We Get the Wrong Politicians, “As well as parliament appearing to be a place that welcomes rather than belittles women, more women need to be asked that important question: ‘Have you considered standing as an MP?’”