Theresa May has appointed a cabinet overwhelmingly educated at state schools but only a third of posts have gone to women, despite claims she would appoint more female colleagues to key roles.
The new prime minister promoted a raft of MPs who are not from privileged backgrounds, including Justine Greening, Andrea Leadsom, Greg Clark, Priti Patel, David Davis and Karen Bradley, spelling an end to the era of the so-called Notting Hill set that has dominated Downing Street.
Five – or around 22% – of her new cabinet attended public schools, while about 43% went to either Oxford or Cambridge University. This compares with 45% of Cameron’s cabinet who were educated privately and 54% who went to Oxbridge.
The total is still higher than the 7% of the population who were educated at independent schools but suggests a move towards making the cabinet more representative.
Two of her cabinet – Javid, the new communities secretary, and Priti Patel, the development secretary – are from ethnic minority backgrounds, making up 9% of the total.
However, only a third are female, with eight out of 23 roles announced so far going to women, compared with seven out of 22 under David Cameron.
The total is equal to the highest ever – under Tony Blair – but is still a long way from gender parity, with most of the senior roles going to men apart from the new home secretary, Amber Rudd, and May herself as prime minister.
On Tuesday, May’s spokeswoman had indicated that she would be trying to promote more female colleagues: “It was Theresa who set up the campaign to elect more female MPs to parliament and she has always believed that there should be more women in prominent government positions.”
Overall, May’s cabinet is slightly older with a median age of 51 compared with Cameron’s 49 and similarly dominated by MPs from the south. Only Davis, the Brexit secretary, represents a seat in the north of England.
Labour claimed there had been a shift to the right, highlighting the fact that leave campaigners Fox and Davis taking charge of exiting the EU and trade negotiations, Patel in charge of foreign aid despite calling for the department to be scrapped and Andrea Leadsom, the pro-Brexit leadership candidate, running the environment department.
They are among the third of the cabinet who did not support Cameron’s gay marriage legislation.
Jon Ashworth, the shadow minister without portfolio, said the appointments did not tally with May’s speech outside Downing Street on Wednesday. “We had warm words from the prime minister yesterday on the need for her government to stand up for more than just a privileged few,” he said. “But Theresa May’s appointments are completely out of kilter with her words on the steps of Downing Street yesterday.
“It’s difficult to see this new-look cabinet as anything other than a sharp shift to the right by the Tories. The test now is to demonstrate that all members of the Tory government are wholly committed to the priorities Theresa May set out yesterday.”
