Men should be banned from running in the next Labour leadership election, the party's ex-deputy leader has said.
Baroness Harriet Harman said she hopes Andy Burnham remains leader for “many, many years" but argued they need to “start a conversation now” on men being “discouraged” from standing next time.
The former deputy Labour leader told Sky News they need to “stop the discrimination”, and the next party leader “absolutely” needs to be a woman.
She said: “I wish with my whole heart Andy Burnham all the success that he can possibly have on behalf of this country and the Labour Party.
“But we’ve got to have a woman next time, and I’ve worked out that the only way we’ll have a woman leader of the Labour Party next time is if we start a conversation now where we say that actually men cannot stand for the leadership next time.
“I think that we need to start the discussion about male ambition and male allyship, that male ambition should not be to lead themselves, male ambition ought to be to support (women).”
Lady Harman and Baroness Margaret Beckett both served as interim leaders of Labour, but the party has never had a woman serve full-time as leader.
The party has had four female deputy leaders, including the incumbent, Lucy Powell.
In contrast, the Conservatives have had four women leaders, including three prime ministers – Theresa May, Liz Truss and Margaret Thatcher.
Lady Harman argued there were a “whole range of reasons” why Tory women had been able to rise to the top, but now what is needed for her party is for “women’s ambition to be encouraged”.
“For every man who stands for leader and gets to be a leader, he has pushed a woman behind him, he’s pushed her into second place behind him,” she said.
“Let’s hope Andy is leader for many, many, many years, and that he’s able to make much more of a success of it than Keir Starmer was.
“But we’ve got to start the discussion now about how we stop the discrimination that there is in the Labour Party, which means that whilst the Tories have managed to have many women leaders, we haven’t, let alone a woman prime minister.”
Mr Burnham became Labour leader earlier this month, having stood unopposed for the position.
Early speculation suggested the now-Housing Secretary Angela Rayner might have considered putting her hat in the ring - but a move never manifested.
Sir Keir Starmer's time in office was hit with accusations of a “boys’ club” culture at No10, alongside claims of misogynistic briefings against female ministers.
Mr Burnham, however, told the women’s parliamentary Labour Party that “there shouldn’t be any meetings with no women in the room” in Government.
He also said that any aide giving misogynistic briefings would be “out the door” and their feet “wouldn’t touch the floor”.
Of the 23 full members of the new Cabinet, including the Prime Minister, 12 are women and 11 are men - the first time men have been outnumbered, up from 10 women and 13 men in Sir Keir Starmer’s final Cabinet.
