Female Labour MPs urge Burnham to back 50:50 government split

Female Labour MPs are pressing Andy Burnham to commit to a 50:50 gender split across his government if he becomes prime minister in July 2026, turning the argument over equality into a test of how power would actually be shared in No 10. A draft letter from the Women’s Parliamentary Labour Party says Labour must lead by example and confront the “toxicity and misogyny” inside its own party and government.

The demands go beyond symbolism. The draft calls for a female deputy prime minister, a separate first minister of state for women, zero tolerance of bullying, misogyny and sexual harassment, and stronger protection against online abuse and deepfakes, especially for women MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds. One WPLP member warned it would not be acceptable “to have more Milibands in the great offices of state than women”, a pointed reference as Burnham is expected to remove Rachel Reeves from the Treasury and the leading names to replace her are men.

Burnham has tried to reassure the group. At a meeting with the women’s PLP this week, he said there should be a woman in every meeting and that any aide giving misogynistic briefings would be “out the door”. That pledge is now being read as the first test of whether a Burnham leadership would deliver measurable change in appointments, not just warmer language.

The pressure lands in a Parliament where women now hold a record share of the Commons. The 4 July 2024 election returned 263 women out of 650 MPs, the highest number ever, and 129 of the 330 first-time MPs were women. Labour’s 2024 intake was 41% women, and Labour accounted for 190 of the 263 female MPs elected last year, according to House of Commons Library figures summarised by Statista. Yet Labour has never had an elected female leader, even as the Conservatives have had three female prime ministers and are now led by Kemi Badenoch.

Keir Starmer’s government set a high bar on paper when it took office on 5 July 2024. Angela Rayner became deputy prime minister and Rachel Reeves became the first woman to hold the Treasury, alongside Yvette Cooper at the Home Office, Shabana Mahmood at justice, Bridget Phillipson in education and women’s equalities, and Lucy Powell as leader of the Commons. Burnham’s allies say he wants to build on that record, but the WPLP letter makes clear that female MPs now want guarantees on cabinet posts, senior portfolios and the culture around them, not another round of promises.