Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy condemns Labour briefings ‘dripping with misogyny’

A Cabinet minister has hit out at Labour briefings “dripping with misogyny” as Sir Keir Starmer was urged to appoint a woman as his de facto deputy in Government.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said women in the party had been targeted anonymously by men and that “all of us” have a responsibility to “call it out.”

It comes after the Prime Minister held talks with female Labour parliamentarians earlier on Wednesday after a string of scandals that critics say have exposed a “boys’ club” within Downing Street.

At the meeting, former deputy leader Baroness Harriet Harman suggested he revive the post of first secretary of state, which was previously held by Lord Peter Mandelson and functions as a de facto deputy prime minister, and task the appointee with tackling misogyny and the marginalisation of women.

Speaking to broadcasters on Wednesday evening, Ms Nandy rejected suggestions that Sir Keir had failed to sufficiently grasp the problem she was describing, pointing to his record handling cases of violence against women and girls while he was director of public prosecutions.

But she suggested a culture of anonymous briefings, including from within the Prime Minister’s office, should be stopped.

“I think politics does often operate as a boys’ club and I don’t think that the Labour Party is immune to that,” Ms Nandy told Times Radio.

She said she was proud of the work Labour had done, including introducing all-women shortlists, but added there was “a lot of work to do”.

“I’ve experienced it, but all women in the Labour Party have experienced it. This culture of allowing anonymous briefings to continue, whether they come from inside the Prime Minister’s office, or our offices or anywhere else, we’ve all got a responsibility to stamp that out.

“I think if you look at the people who’ve had the most briefings against them, it’s largely been from men, anonymously, I should say, against women.”

She added: “Some of the briefings have absolutely been dripping with misogyny, you know, you hear these things about, you know, we’re lazy, we spend too much time with our kids, we don’t spend enough time with all kids – you really can’t win.

“In the end it’s designed to try to keep us down and to try and stop us from being heard.”

Earlier, the Prime Minister apologised for appointing Lord Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the US last year, as he spoke at a meeting of the women’s Parliamentary Labour Party, and said he would consider Baroness Harman’s suggestion.

One source in the room said his appearance in front of female MPs and peers was “very positive” and Sir Keir was in “listening mode”.

However, another said the applause was for the women in the room and described the atmosphere as “flat”.

The Prime Minister has faced renewed questions about his judgment over the appointment of Lord Matthew Doyle, his former communications chief, to the House of Lords.

Lord Doyle has had the Labour whip removed and apologised for campaigning for paedophile councillor Sean Morton in 2017 after the latter had been charged with having indecent images of children.

The peer said he had believed Morton’s assertions of innocence before the councillor admitted the offending, and said he had “extremely limited” contact with Morton after his conviction.

Sir Keir has said the ex-aide “did not give a full account” of his association with Morton when he was given a seat in Parliament’s unelected second chamber.

Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch accused the Prime Minister of “stuffing Government with hypocrites and paedophile apologists”.

She also claimed during Prime Minister’s Questions that he was pretending to care about violence against women to “save his own skin” amid simmering discontent within Labour amid the fallout from the Mandelson scandal.

She said: “The Mandelson episode was not an isolated incident. A few weeks ago he announced a peerage for one Matthew Doyle, his former director of communications.

“Immediately after that, the Sunday Times published on the front page that Doyle campaigned for a man charged with child sex offences, yet despite the Prime Minister knowing this, he gave Doyle a job for life in the House of Lords anyway. Why?”

In his response, Sir Keir said: “Matthew Doyle did not give a full account of his actions. I promised my party and my country there will be change, and yesterday I removed the whip from Matthew Doyle.”

Mrs Badenoch pointed out that the Sunday Times reported on Lord Doyle’s post-charge association with Moray councillor Morton in late December, after his peerage was announced, but that he went on to take his seat in the upper chamber in January.

“Despite the Prime Minister knowing this, he gave Doyle a job for life in the House of Lords anyway,” the Conservative leader said.

But No 10 insisted there was no precedent for halting a peerage after it has been announced.

Several senior Labour figures, including Ms Nandy, deputy leader Lucy Powell and party chairwoman Anna Turley have said the former aide should not remain in the Lords.

Downing Street rejected suggestions that it had been run as a “boys’ club”, and the Prime Minister’s spokesman said he did not accept he had failed to fulfil his promise to end sleaze.

Sir Keir has insisted his top team is “strong and united” after Cabinet ministers rallied around him with public messages of support following Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s call for him to quit.

The Prime Minister expressed his “100%” support for Mr Sarwar, who had cited concern that the “distraction” from Downing Street would harm the party’s chances of unseating the SNP in May’s Holyrood elections.

In Wales, Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan insisted Sir Keir had her “full confidence”, while Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, seen as a potential challenger for the Labour leadership, declared his support but said he had spoken to Sir Keir about the party needing a “strong sense of a stronger team again”.

Sir Keir is expected to continue efforts to shake up his No 10 operation, with the country’s top civil servant Sir Chris Wormald rumoured to be on his way out in the coming days.

But he is expected to continue efforts to shake up his No 10 operation, with the country’s top civil servant Sir Chris Wormald believed to be on his way out imminently.

In a highly unusual intervention on Wednesday evening, former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office Lord Simon McDonald said there should be a “full process” to appoint a new Cabinet Secretary “that needs to start from scratch”.

Rumours have swirled in Westminster that Sir Keir intends to replace Mr Wormald with Dame Antonia Romeo, a civil servant who also worked at the Foreign Office during Lord McDonald’s tenure.

Asked what should happen now, the peer told Channel 4 News: “This is the most important job in the civil service. It can’t be chosen on the fly.”

He added: “If the Prime Minister wants a new Cabinet Secretary, he needs to start from scratch.

“Due diligence is vitally important. The Prime Minister has recent bitter experience of doing the due diligence too late.

“It would be an unnecessary tragedy to repeat that mistake.”

He said he would prefer to go into detail about this with No 10, and that he had “been in touch today and not had a response”.

The Prime Minister’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and communications chief Tim Allan have already departed as he seeks to revive his fortunes after a bruising start to 2026.