Labour insiders have sparked a row by trying to pitch Andy Burnham as the party’s ‘first woman prime minister’.

Despite Labour having a record-breaking 190 female MPs elected at the 2024 general election, the party is set to continue its long history of only having male leaders.

Mr Burnham is all but certain to replace Keir Starmer in Downing Street next month as no other Labour leadership contenders are expected to put their names forward.

If he does succeed Sir Keir, then Mr Burnham will be Labour’s 20th permanent UK-wide leader and eighth PM – all of whom have been male.

By contrast, the Tories have had four female leaders and three female PMs. But one senior Labour figure attempted to portray Mr Burnham as ‘a female PM in all but sex’.

In comments to The Spectator magazine, they described Mr Burnham as ‘Labour’s first woman PM’ because he is ‘genuinely passionate about all those traditionally female-oriented issues’.

But the claim was given short shrift by top female Labour figures.

Tulip Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate and former Treasury minster, posted on X: ‘If there’s anything to make me feel more angry about the fact that no female MP has put themselves forward to be our Leader, it’s reading utter insulting nonsense like this. 

Labour insiders have sparked a row by trying to pitch Andy Burnham as the party’s ‘first woman prime minister’

The claim was given short shrift by Johann Lamont, a former leader of the Scottish Labour Party

Tulip Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate and former Treasury minster, also hit out at the comments from a senior Labour figure

Johann Lamont, a former leader of the Scottish Labour Party, wrote: ‘I guess we should not be too harsh on Andy Burnham.

‘He is in a long tradition of Labour men who REALLY REALLY support women – right up to the point where they have to choose between their own preferment and supporting a woman for the role…’ 

And Rosie Duffield, who was elected Labour MP for Canterbury at the 2024 general election before quitting the party in protest at Sir Keir’s leadership, said: ‘No words. None.’

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch quipped: ‘Labour might have changed leader, but they still don’t know what a woman is.’ 

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Angela Rayner, the former deputy PM, are among those female Labour MPs who were previously touted as potential replacements for Sir Keir.

But they are all set to row in behind Mr Burnham, who could become PM as soon as 17 July under the departure timetable set out by Sir Keir earlier this week.

The senior party figure who pitched Mr Burnham as ‘Labour’s first woman PM’ told The Spectator: ‘The reason Labour have always craved, but also been cautious about, a female leader is because, in a Labour government, she could have an unashamedly female agenda, focused on health, education, family finances and issues like safer streets, social care, online safety for kids, that are disproportionately important to women.

‘[This would be] unlike the Tories’ female leaders, who are under internal pressure – and the weight of history – to show how tough they are on traditionally male issues. 

‘Along comes Andy, surrounded by female advisers and backers, but more importantly, genuinely passionate about all those traditionally female-oriented issues, and much less so with the bombs and budgets.

‘So could we finally see what Labour has failed to deliver all these years – a female PM in all but sex?’

A spokesperson for Mr Burnham did not comment on the claims.