The three men fighting to become the first elected mayor of Greater Manchester are engaged in a battle over who can be more female-friendly, following criticism that the all-male shortlist for the Labour nomination fails to represent the electorate.
Ivan Lewis, the MP for Bury South, announced plans on Friday for a “women’s commission”. This body would investigate low pay, the gender pay gap and work-life balance including childcare and women as carers, he said. On average, women earn 5% less than men in Greater Manchester and female graduates in Manchester on average earn £6,500 less than men, he claimed.
The idea followed an announcement by one of his rivals, the shadow home secretary, Andy Burnham, that he would seek to have gender parity on the Greater Manchester combined authority.
Currently only one of the 10 council leaders who make up the combined authority is a woman.
Burnham, who has represented the Greater Manchester parliamentary seat of Leigh in Wigan since 2001, suggested each council should in future nominate two councillors, one male, one female, to be part of the authority.
He said he had appointed the Worsley and Eccles South MP, Barbara Keeley, to conduct a review into how to improve women’s representation in Greater Manchester.
Lewis’s women’s commission would be chaired by the former Bolton West Labour MP Julie Hilling, who lost her seat the Conservatives last year, and Akilah Akinola, the chief executive of a learning disability charity.
Lewis said: “The fact we only have one woman council leader and currently no woman candidate for the Labour mayoral nomination despite there being many excellent women councillors provides strong evidence that there are fundamental issues to address. The commission will include political representation in its remit but I will also take immediate action by ensuring that at least 50% of councillors driving change at a Greater Manchester level will be women. To be taken seriously on the equality agenda politicians must lead by example.”
Not to be outdone, Lewis and Burnham’s rival Tony Lloyd, the interim mayor of Greater Manchester and current police and crime commissioner, said he had already asked council leaders to appoint female deputies.
He said: “If elected in 2017 I will ensure at least 50% of all deputies will be women, massively changing the makeup of the combined authority and the voices there. I will also make one of them an equalities deputy who will take a view at how policies impact on women across our work on health, jobs and the costs of childcare, housing, training and skills.
“I will fight to end gender pay gap across Greater Manchester starting with a campaign to put pressure on local businesses to pay a living wage and conduct equal pay reviews.”
Many Labour members across Greater Manchester are unhappy that there is almost certainly going to be an all-male shortlist for the party nomination.
Kieran Quinn, the leader of Tameside council and chair of the Greater Manchester Labour party, said: “I think to have a shortlist of three middle-aged white men, no matter how talented, does not reflect the diversity of Greater Manchester, and that is a great pity. Half of Greater Manchester residents are not male, and more than 10% are not white, and so for Labour it seems a missed opportunity.”
He said he had spoken to various potential female candidates but that, so far, none were planning to stand. “They all agreed that this is a massive job. They know the successful candidate, once elected, will have one of Europe’s biggest personal political mandates, with the power to shape this great city region for the next decade and beyond. It beggars belief that with such a prize up for grabs there isn’t a single Labour woman in the whole of Greater Manchester willing to throw her hat in the ring.”
