Well, the honeymoon is over. In just a short period, Labour has been hit with a barrage of criticism – ranging from complaints about policies like the winter fuel allowance, criticism of its policy on Gaza to scrutiny over the number of freebies accepted by cabinet ministers. While much of the backlash reeks of a right-wing media still sulking over the loss of a Conservative administration, Labour’s inexperience has left them vulnerable to error.
Beneath this chaos, something more insidious is taking place, too. A disproportionate amount of criticism directed toward Labour has landed on the shoulders of its female figures. Take a closer look at who is being targeted within Sir Keir Starmer’s administration, and a troubling pattern emerges. The unprecedented resignation of Sue Gray, Sir Keir’s chief of staff, has rocked the Government considerably. Ms Gray, who gained prominence for leading the investigation into “Partygate”, became a lightning rod for attacks on Starmer’s government. In many ways, it’s no surprise, given her role in holding the Conservatives to account. Still, the tone of the criticism directed at Ms Gray is steeped in something more toxic than political rivalry.
For months, we have seen a drip of anonymous leaks in the papers, painting her as “difficult”, accusing her of being “arrogant”, “hoarding power”, and “micro-managing”- all part of that familiar trope of that “bloody difficult woman”.
The revelation that she earned £170,000 – £3,000 more than the Prime Minister – was reported with outrage, even though her salary was not far off (and considering inflation) that earned by her infamous and vastly more divisive predecessor, Dominic Cummings. Meanwhile, Simon Case, her rumoured adversary in Government, quietly earns £30,000 more than Ms Gray as cabinet secretary. The media’s fixation on Ms Gray’s pay, coupled with the anonymous briefings about her behaviour, will be familiar to any woman who has ever had to justify the value of work while watching male colleagues barely give it a second thought.
Ms Gray’s departure stands in high contrast to Mr Case, the man rumoured to have been behind some of the briefings. While she is lambasted for her forthright manner, Mr Case goes seemingly unscathed. Negative assertions about Mr Case’s conduct during Covid-19 has almost been entirely forgotten. Instead, it is Ms Gray who is painted as the villain, with little evidence against her except anonymous briefings.
Ms Gray’s resignation was thus inevitable and depressingly predictable. At first glance it might appear noble – a woman choosing to step aside to keep the focus on the government rather than herself. But coupled with the toxicity that predates her resignation, it starts to feel more like a female colleague taking the fall for a team that can not work together and a leader who can not maintain discipline within his ranks.
The attacks don’t stop with Ms Gray, either. Angela Rayner, Labour’s Deputy Leader, has long been the favoured punching bag of the right-wing press. A working-class woman whose grit and ambition have been met with disdain, Ms Rayner was pictured on holiday in Ibiza over the summer, as the media decried her enjoyment as unbecoming of a woman in her position. More recently, The Times ran a story highlighting that Rayner spent £3,000 – of her own money, no less – on a suit for her partner. The story itself was an entire non-event, but the message was clear – Angela Rayner had crossed an invisible line by being both successful and generous.
Even the Prime Minister’s wife, Lady Victoria Starmer, has found herself in the crosshairs. After it was revealed – again, via Starmer’s own above-board declarations – that she had been gifted clothing by Lord Alli commentators hounded her, GB News’ Darren Grimes labelled her “Lady Victoria Sponge”.
Lady Starmer – an occupational health worker for the NHS who became a public figure almost overnight – is now expected to attend several high-profile functions where her appearance will constantly be under review. She is damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t.
Labour is not blameless in this narrative. Rumours of a boys’ club surrounding Sir Keir Starmer circulated long before he became Prime Minister. Many are still quietly suggesting that Ms Gray was caught in the crossfire, unwilling to toe the party line and fall in step behind the likes of Morgan McSweeney and other powerful male figures within Starmer’s ranks.
For women working in male-dominated fields, the “boys’ club” is all too familiar: decisions being made behind closed doors, women excluded from key conversations, and access to power granted or withheld based on seemingly personal whims. It’s an atmosphere that can be hard to prove but impossible to ignore. It is a failure of Starmer’s leadership that toxic briefings against the women within his ranks had been allowed to circulate unchecked while perceptions of male favouritism prevailed.
But laying the blame solely at Labour’s door does a disservice to the talented women within Starmer’s team. There are many competent, highly capable women in key positions within the party – figures whose contributions should not be diminished by the narrative of concentrated male power. To name just a few, Jill Cutherbertson and Vidhya Alakeson, both co-deputy chiefs of staff, are widely admired by their peers. Although Starmer should have taken the earlier rumblings of a boys’ club seriously, Labour can’t bear the full weight of blame.
This isn’t just about the party – it’s a reflection of persistent sexism. The professional double standard that women face – endlessly fixating on what they wear or how they conduct themselves—reduces them to caricatures of indulgence or hysteria. Women in power are held to impossible standards, subjected to criticism that their male counterparts are never forced to endure, and their work is too often disregarded.
No doubt, Labour has to get its affairs in order. But the sexist undertones of the criticism levelled at its female figures cannot be ignored. Now, it must confront the uncomfortable reality that some of its most talented figures are being targeted not because of their conduct, but because of their gender. Labour must quickly learn – just as most women already know – why it was entirely inevitable and depressingly predictable that the first casualty of its administration would always be a woman.
Zoë Grünewald is a freelance political journalist and broadcaster. She is a panellist on the ‘Oh God What Now’ podcast and presents ‘Politics Uncensored’ on Fubar Radio
