Lucy Powell with Tracy Brabin, the mayor of West Yorkshire, on the day Andy Burnham gave his speech at the People\u2019s History Museum in Manchester. Photograph: Temilade Adelaja\/Reuters<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was very clearly a pattern over time of anonymous nasty briefings against colleagues being disproportionately meted out to women,\u201d she said. \u201cBut there was also a culture that became very factional, and appointments being made on the basis of which faction or which friendship group you were in [\u2026] It was not a meritocracy in any sense and not a broad church.\u201d<\/p>\n
She felt that the culture in No 10 had improved in recent months under senior Labour<\/a> women, and vowed to continue to push for a \u201cmeritocracy [where] appointments are made in a more open way based on people\u2019s passions, experiences and contributions\u201d.<\/p>\n Burnham said this week that he would sack any staff who briefed against or undermined women in his team<\/a>. The Makerfield MP told members of the women\u2019s parliamentary Labour party: \u201cI want to make it clear that if anyone in my team was found to have done that [negative briefing] they would be out of the door. Their feet wouldn\u2019t touch the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if she thought No 10 culture would be different under Burnham, she said: \u201cI do \u2013 how is something we\u2019ll all need to help with, and be part of.\u201d Powell\u2019s intervention comes after figures on the left of the Labour party accused Starmer and his allies of overseeing a \u201cpurge\u201d of dissident views that created a \u201cculture of fear\u201d<\/a> and called on Burnham to listen to formerly marginalised figures.<\/p>\n From left: Andy Burnham, Bev Craig, the leader of Manchester city council, Lucy Powell and Angela Rayner at the launch of Craig\u2019s campaign to become Greater Manchester mayor. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The former mayor of Greater Manchester \u2013 who is expected to become prime minister later this month \u2013 is facing pressure to appoint a high number of female cabinet ministers, especially if he replaces Rachel Reeves with a man in the Treasury. His chief of staff will be his close friend and former cabinet minister James Purnell, a role that is now shared by two women \u2013 Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson. Labour\u2019s female MPs wrote to Burnham before the meeting to ask him to commit to a 50\/50 gender split for ministers and staff.<\/p>\n
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