Burnham’s chief lieutenant Louise Haigh claims Starmer’s government was sexist
A key ally of Andy Burnham has accused Sir Keir Starmer’s government of issuing “sexist” briefings against a group of senior Labor MPs.
Louise Haigh, who has been at the center of the prime minister’s march to No 10, spoke out against attacks by what she called a “boy gang” on former deputy Chancellor Angela Rayner and cabinet ministers Bridget Phillipson and Lisa Nandy.
He told the BBC Political Thought podcast: “The idea that there isn’t a group of men around the government who are deliberately mistreating women is just fantasy.”
The extraordinary intervention came days before Mr Burnham was to become Prime Minister; Ms Haigh said she had been planning for this for the past year.
The former transport secretary also revealed she has not spoken to Sir Keir since he was forced to resign from his cabinet because he accused his administration of trying to “overthrow my character” after he left.
Ms Haigh pulled no punches as Sir Keir sought to secure his “legacy” as Prime Minister in his final few days in office.
When told that the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, had denied there was a “boys’ club” at No 10, he said Ms Phillipson and Ms Nandy “were both victims – as was I, frankly – of deeply sexist and unpleasant press briefings”. [Rayner] to have.”
He added: “You only had to open the newspapers most days to read the disgusting briefing that took place, the awful way they talked about our colleagues to journalists.”
Ms Haigh said the treatment of Sir Keir’s first private secretary Sue Gray was “absolutely disgraceful”.
It’s not the first time Starmer’s government has been accused of sexism. In February, Ms Nandy said Labor briefings were “dripping with misogyny”.
Ms Haigh said Mr Burnham was trying to move away from the so-called “boys’ club” culture that many female MPs complained about in Sir Keir’s No 10 operation.
The Sheffield Heeley MP will stand down as transport secretary in 2024 after it was revealed he pleaded guilty to falsely reporting to police that a work mobile phone had been stolen in 2013.
He told the podcast that he had signed a statement saying Downing Street had previously explained the matter to Sir Keir. But then Mr. McSweeney called and asked for his resignation.
“I had to press hard to even talk to Keir, and he didn’t want to have that conversation himself, and both Morgan and him were saying, ‘Well, additional information has come out,’ but neither of them ever told me what that additional information was.
“And then they repeated it. And it was painful because they could have said: ‘Look, these headlines suck, and it wouldn’t be nice for you to ignore them.’
“And it wasn’t. And honestly, I would have accepted it and left on that basis, especially because I didn’t want to leave them behind. It was embarrassing and not pleasant to go through.”
“But pretending I hadn’t told him, and briefing him so consistently and so relentlessly over the next few weeks was a deliberate attempt to break my character.”
He said he told Sir Keir about the fraud crime while Labor was still in opposition, and Sir Keir subsequently promoted him several times. But he added that he had not had “a single personal conversation” with her since he left the cabinet. “I’ve had to fire people throughout my political career, and you don’t need to do it in a way that’s so obviously hurtful.”
He also revealed that Mr Burnham had been planning what he would do as prime minister for at least a year. “He’s been thinking about it and has definitely been planning for it for at least the last year,” he said.
