We need a woman! Last-minute panic over top posts all given to white men

JEREMY Corbyn made a last-minute decision to appoint Angela Eagle as his Commons deputy after allies warned he was ‘taking a fair amount of s***’ about the lack of women in his top team.

The new Labour leader and his aides were overheard by political journalists as they frantically put together his shadow cabinet on Sunday night.

Mr Corbyn was under pressure to give prominent roles to women after Tom Watson was elected as his deputy the day before.

But as news of his top team leaked out on Sunday night, it emerged that he had handed to men the key jobs shadowing the Treasury, the Foreign Office and the Home Office.

After leftwinger John McDonnell was preferred as Shadow Chancellor to Miss Eagle, Labour MPs took to the airwaves to protest. Diana Johnson posted on Twitter: ‘It is so very disappointing – old-fashioned, male-dominated Labour politicians in the top positions.’

Fellow MP Mike Gapes described the lack of women in senior roles as disappointing.

The backlash prompted a hurried rethink in the Commons office where the reshuffle was being carried out.

Simon Fletcher, Mr Corbyn’s chief of staff, was overheard saying: ‘We are taking a fair amount of s*** out there about women.

‘We need to do a Mandelson. Let’s make Angela shadow first minister of state. Like Mandelson was. She can cover PMQs. Tom (Watson) knows about this. Do the Angela bit now.’ Minutes later, a text message was sent out to reporters confirming Miss Eagle’s appointment.

Mr Corbyn yesterday dismissed accusations of sexism. He said his final, 31- strong shadow cabinet contained 16 women – the first time a frontbench team has been more than half female.

However the new team included a number of unusual roles, such as the appointment of Gloria de Piero as shadow minister for young people and voter registration – a job that does not exist in government.

Women were also appointed to several key roles, such as health and education.

Mr Corbyn said critics who insisted he should have put a woman at the Home Office, the Treasury or the Foreign Office were taking a 19th century view of politics – ‘an era before women or workers even had the vote’.