When I heard Diane Abbott on the Today programme declaring that she was going to stand for Labour leader, she sounded as surprised as I was. I was also relieved and happy; not because Abbott will be my first choice but because I think it will be good for the contest.
It would have been worrying to have had the debate we’re currently having about immigration without a prominent black voice. But the main source of my relief was that the leadership election now had a female candidate.
Having just fought a general election in which the most visible women were the leaders’ wives, the leadership election could have been another step back. Labour still has more women MPs than all the other parties put together, but it’s hard to feel we’re always making the best use of the talent in our party.
Women have a prominent role in all five campaigns: as campaign managers, spokespeople and as supporters.
When David Miliband launched his campaign Lisa Tremble, his head of press, was at the core of his offer of a new politics, with a declaration that she would speak on his behalf on the record to tackle the negative briefing culture that does so much damage in Westminster. Tremble is clear that all candidates in the leadership election were committed to moving on from the culture of personality-driven politics. ‘Women are more likely to want to do the job well, to fight the issues, not each other,’ she argues.
Lucy Powell narrowly missed out on being elected in Manchester Withington at the general election, and is now running Ed Miliband’s leadership campaign. She believes this election ‘has not been a sniping contest; that’s not who I am.’ Like Tremble, Powell has a young family. It feels like a real shift that leadership candidates are appointing staffers in the full knowledge that they won’t be able to work night and day in the office on the campaign.
Jo Tanner had a similar message about ways of working. She is responsible for communications in Andy Burnham’s campaign team. Her emphasis on professionalism, team-working and skills is compelling. As she points out, women are increasingly in senior communications roles across the private and public sector, as that is often where their skills lie, and it makes sense that the Labour party is beginning to reflect that.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry’s story is inspiring: a single mother who did her accountancy qualifications on her kitchen table and went on to become a Treasury minister. She’s now running Ed Balls’ leadership campaign. McCarthy-Fry’s biggest assets are her financial expertise and experience as an MP in the south-east of England, the region we most need to win. She says that Balls values her partly because she has a life outside the campaign, and the perspective that comes with that.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy works on Diane Abbott’s campaign. She believes that ‘the campaign is run as a collective and women act in, or contribute to, every role in the campaign.’
Both Powell and McCarthy-Fry said that the current hours and ways of working in the House of Commons make it more difficult for women to be in a position to stand, and the numbers bear that out – the attrition rate for women MPs and women ministers is much higher than that for men. Both Tremble and Powell made the critical mass argument. The more role models there are for women, and the more women are on the inside effecting change, the better shape our party will be in.
It is notable that in the most professionalised contest we’ve ever seen, women are at the forefront of making things happen, and the male candidates have chosen to put them there.
I asked the women I spoke to whether they thought the number of women in senior roles in leadership campaigns this time around made it more likely that there would be women standing to be leader in the future. The consensus was a cautious yes.