Women running for Labour shadow cabinet


by Sunny Hundal    
5:35 pm - September 29th 2010

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According to Labour party rules at least 6 women have to be elected to the shadow cabinet.

The 49 names has been announced – LabourList has the full list.

There are 13 women on the list (in alphabetical order):

Diane Abbott
Roberta Blackman-Woods
Yvette Cooper
Mary Creagh
Angela Eagle
Maria Eagle
Caroline Flint
Meg Hillier
Tessa Jowell
Barbara Keeley
Fiona Mactaggart
Ann McKechin
Emily Thornberry

Of these – Yvette Cooper is a shoo-in. Caroline Flint and Tessa Jowell also very likely. I wonder if Diane Abbott and Emily Thornberry will split Labour MPs on the left. I don’t know much about the others – but they have just under a 50% chance of being elected.

Update: Harriet Harman (as deputy leader) and Rosie Winterton (as chief whip) will also be in the shadow cabinet, as has been pointed out to me on Twitter.

So that brings the minimum to eight women.
[Roberta's name also now corrected]

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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. John Ruddy

I think thats Roberta Blackman-Woods…

2. blanco

Robert Blackman-Woods? Didn’t think Labour were so “progressive” as to give a women-only slot to a guy… :)

3. More to the Point

Abbott will be a left wing liability to Red Ed.

4. Watchman

I think that should be Roberta Blackman-Woods (the MP whose surname sounds most like a place in rural Essex).

Oh, and considering that there is also a statistical chance that all of the female candidates will be elected, I would suggest the chance of election of any of the candidates in nominally >50%,

Incidentally, I assume in the interests of equality there will be a list of men standing in the election also? Although I note they are not guaranteed a set number of seats (although since there are less female candidates than places at the shadow cabinet table, I suspect they are…).

5. earwicga

The Eagles are twin sisters if that helps you any Sunny? Obviously, as siblings, they can’t both be in the shadow cabinet.

Maria Eagle was good on arguing against the shameful plan to give accused rapists anonymity

6. E.P. Thompson

Given that only five MPs voted for Diane Abbott as Labour leader, I can’t imagine she’ll get enough votes to get into the shadow cabinet. It’s not as if she had an impressive leadership campaign to justify a place. I don’t know much about Emily Thornberry though.

7. namak

I think that I should have a vote in the election for Labour’s shadow cabinet!

Maybe LiberalConspiracy could make this happen!

8. Chaise Guevara

But which will bring the softest edge to politics, Sunny? What of softness? We must rate these women by their relative similarity to the Andrex puppy!

9. Laban

Robert Blackman-Woods ? Sounds like the kind of place you might meet Ron Davies.

10. Sunny Hundal

I’ve corrected Roberta’s name (apols).

The list has also been updated with two names, and some of you are right in saying it could be more than 6 women MPs elected. I was just pointing out the minimum.

11. spence

To E.P. Thompson, seven MPs voted Diane Abbott for leader. Also, friends of hers who would probably vote for her for Shadow Cabinet like Keith Vaz and David Lammy voted for others for leader.

12. Falco

“Maria Eagle was good on arguing against the shameful plan to give accused rapists anonymity”

The above sentence shows part of the problem that the plan was supposed to address. The accused are “people who are accused of rape” not “accused rapists”, (if they are rapists then they have already been convicted).

13. earwicga

(if they are rapists then they have already been convicted).

That’s extremely unlikely. Most rape is unreported for a start.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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  14. How excellent!

    [...] Isn’t that lovely? Gender tokenism means that peeps that even a hardened political anorak like Sunny have no clue about must, must, get elected. [...]





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