A senior Conservative MP has dismissed Boris Johnson’s claim to be “a feminist” – pointing to his dismal failure to promote women.
Downing Street – confronted with criticism of the prime minister’s past sexist comments – insisted he deserves to be called a feminist, urging people to “look back at his record”.
But Caroline Nokes, the chair of the Commons women and equalities committee, said a key test was the make-up of the Cabinet, which remained overwhelmingly male.
“I got really quite cross with a comment, as reported to me, that the prime minister accepted he needed to have more women in his Cabinet – he shouldn’t be accepting it, you should want it, “ she told the Tory spring forum.
“Do I think the prime minister is a feminist? No I don’t. I think we have to judge him by his actions, not his words.”
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Ms Nokes protested that the proportion of female Cabinet ministers was actually falling, saying: “I mean, how can that even be possible? At a time when we’ve not obviously had a reshuffle?
“We’re not hearing from women in the press conferences and on the Sunday morning broadcast rounds,” she told a panel event hosted by iNHouse Communications at the online forum.
The comments come after Mr Johnson was accused of hypocrisy when he called for an end to “casual everyday sexism” in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard.
It was pointed out that he had previously referred to women as “hot totty”, called the children of single mothers “ill-raised, ignorant and illegitimate” – and berated men for failing to “take control of their women”.
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