At a Westminster meeting, Andy Burnham told Labour women MPs any aide found briefing against female ministers would be “out of the door” as he pledged to change the party’s internal culture.
The warning followed complaints that women in senior roles faced disproportionate negative leaks, with Louise Haigh, Yvette Cooper and Bridget Phillipson cited amid wider allegations of a “boys’ club” and structural misogyny.
Burnham also rejected a Spectator description of him as Labour’s “first female PM,” a label that had angered MPs already pressing him to show support for women through appointments rather than rhetoric.
Female MPs have asked for a 50/50 split in ministers and staff and for the deputy prime minister role to go to a woman, setting up an early test as Burnham assembles a team led by ally James Purnell.