Women's Rights Activists Slam Cabinet Line-Up

There is now no full member of the Cabinet speaking for women following the resignation of Maria Miller, according to Labour.

And the Government has been accused of being 'out of touch' when it comes to women's issues.

As well as being Culture Secretary, Ms Miller also oversaw the women and equalities brief.

Prime Minister David Cameron replaced her with Sajid Javid, who now looks after culture and equalities.

Nicky Morgan has been given the role of women's minister and is also taking on Mr Javid's previous job as Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

As Treasury Minister, Ms Morgan will be entitled to attend Cabinet but she is not a full member.

And there was speculation she was not given the equalities role because of her opposition to gay marriage.

Of the 34 politicians entitled to attend Cabinet, five are female, including three who are full members - Home Secretary Theresa May, Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers and International Development Secretary Justine Greening.

The trio - along with Ms Morgan and Senior Minister of State Baroness Warsi - therefore represent the estimated 32.153 million women in the UK whilst making up just 14% of the Cabinet.

In comparison to our European counterparts, the UK is now ranked 20th out of 28 nations - Greece currently comes last with only 5.3% of its cabinet female.

Sweden currently leads in the representation of women with 56.5%, closely followed by Finland with 50% and France with 48.6%.

This has led to criticism from all sides, with women's rights campaigners the Fawcett Society tweeting "Change to cabinet line up means drop in no. of women in Cabinet AND women’s brief no longer at heart of government" [sic].

Labour's Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities Gloria De Piero said: "David Cameron’s decision to replace Maria Miller with Sajid Javid means there is now no full member of the Cabinet speaking for women.

"When it comes to women, it's out of sight, out of mind for this out-of-touch Government."

However, Number 10 stressed the mini-reshuffle means there are four ministers rather than three with responsibility for women's issues now.

A year before the 2010 General Election David Cameron had promised voters: "If elected, by the end of our first Parliament I want a third of all my ministers to be female."

But the statistics show that Mr Cameron has failed in this aim with the number of female Cabinet Ministers falling.

There are also 12 departments that are entirely without elected female Conservative representation.

Of the 108 ministerial government jobs, only 11 are held by female Conservative MPs.

However Paul Waugh editor of Politics Home points out: "It's rather a shame that the women/gay rights row also overshadows fact that Javid is the first male Muslim Cabinet minister."

In 2010 though, Mr Javid said of his own faith: "My own family’s heritage is Muslim. Myself and my four brothers were brought up to believe in God, but I do not practise any religion.

"My wife is a practising Christian and the only religion practised in my house is Christianity.”