'Sisterhood' row as cabinet women told they're 'mediocre

Coun Deirdre Alden launched a scathing attack on Labour women at Birmingham's meeting on equal pay liabilities

Harry Leach - Local Democracy Reporter | Wednesday 27th September 2023 8:01am

A Birmingham councillor was sarcastically thanked for her ‘sisterhood’ after she slammed women cabinet members as ‘mediocre’ and called for their resignations. Coun Deirdre Alden launched the scathing attack on Labour women at a vital meeting over equal pay liabilities.

The historic session, held yesterday, September 25, was a chance for effectively-bankrupt Birmingham City Council to lay out its financial recovery plan – with its equal pay bill currently in the region of £760million. For years the authority underpaid women workers, despite them doing jobs of equal value to their male colleagues.

Ms Alden, Conservative member for Edgbaston, took aim at women on the opposite bench who were drafted into the ruling cabinet last year by former leader Ian Ward. The move was celebrated at the time because eight out of the ten posts were filled by women.

“The Labour cabinet unveiled last May was hailed as historic because eight out of the ten members were women,” said Ms Alden. “They posed happily for a picture in the Council House and they tweeted excitedly.

“I can’t say I share their excitement. I don’t personally mind if cabinet members are men or women, but I expect them to be among the most talented people in the ruling group.

“People who understand their portfolio, are able to speak about it fluently at meetings and can answer questions on any part of it at full council. Crucially, they need to be people who will read all the papers for cabinet, that’s all the papers, not just the ones for their report.

“But regardless of what I thought, how pleased the 5,000 or so low-paid women, who work for the council, must have felt when they saw those women in top positions. Now there were mainly women in these top roles, and some of them were women who had tweeted support for these low-paid women.

“Surely the new cabinet would have the guts to sort out equal pay once and for all? Except, as we can see, they absolutely didn’t.”

Ms Alden said the cabinet unveiled last year contained “eight rather mediocre women” who, along with male colleagues, “ought to resign on block” over the equal pay disaster. She added: “This is the Labour cabinet which has brought our once-great city to effective bankruptcy by their pathetic inability to govern and make hard decisions. They should go.”

Coun Sam Forsyth (Lab, Quinton) hit back at Ms Alden following the verbal onslaught. She said: “It’s always really, really refreshing and empowering when another woman tells somebody else they’re mediocre. Thank you for the sisterhood and thank you for the solidarity.”

Coun Liz Clements (Lab, Bournville & Cotteridge) added: “We have apologised to the women workers who are being underpaid. I do think, as women councillors in this group, where we are the majority, we have a particular responsibility to ensure we end this injustice of an unequal pay structure. We cannot allow this to continue.”

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