Team Burnham accused of sexist remarks
ANDY BURNHAM was dragged into a sexism row yesterday after a prominent supporter suggested that neither of the female Labour leadership candidates, Yvette Cooper or Liz Kendall, could do the job.
Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, a backer of Mr Burnham, said that Ms Cooper and Ms Kendall could not “reach out to all wings of the party” and La- bour’s future would be too “challenging” for them.
Ms Kendall hit back at the “gross insult”, believing there to be sexist undertones in his comments.
She said: “It is depressing to see a senior man in the party dismiss the contribution of women so easily.
“Charlie made a great contribution to the last Labour government and I would have thought he would have learnt that one of the reasons we achieved so much was because there was a record number of women around the top table.
“For Charlie to say that women somehow aren’t tough enough to lead the Labour Party is a gross insult and, as for standing up to Jeremy Corbyn, I’m the only candidate who has been saying he would be a disaster for our party and that I wouldn’t serve in his shadow cabinet.”
Lord Falconer said: “Both have a big future in our party. But neither Yvette nor Liz can steer the Labour Party through the challenging few years ahead of us when we need a leader who can reach out to all wings of our party and provide unity.”
Mr Burnham’s aides dismissed as “categorically incorrect” the suggestion that Lord Falconer’s comments were sexist. A spokesman said: “The suggestion that it was an attack on the other candidates in this way is categorically incorrect.” In an interview with The
Guardian meanwhile, Ms Cooper said that the party was conducting a “startlingly retro” leadership campaign and that it should not be “led by two men”.