Time for a female Justice minister, say MPs

Louise Mensch, who recently announced her resignation as a Tory MP to be with her husband in New York, has criticised David Cameron for appointing an all-male team to the Ministry of Justice.

Ms Mensch has demanded that a female lawyer should be moved to a ministry post in the reshuffle expected in the autumn.

"We should get a woman minister in the MoJ and I am sure that it is/was already Cameron's ambition," she tweeted yesterday. It is necessary because the ministry deals with "rape, sexual trafficking and other crimes against women," she said.

The controversy over rape has been revived in this country by Ecuador's decision to grant political asylum to the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, who is wanted for questioning by the Swedish police for alleged sexual crimes. He has been defended by the Respect MP, George Galloway, who claimed that, in sexual intercourse, "not everybody needs to be asked prior to each insertion". In the US, Congressman Todd Akin claimed women who are raped have a biological mechanism that prevents pregnancy. "Women are fed up with male politicians diminishing, dismissing and demeaning the horrific crime of rape," Ms Mensch wrote.