Brexit 'another job for the boys' say female Labour MPs as the criticise negotiating team's gender imbalance

'Our European counterparts, on the other hand, have women in nearly half of their team’s positions'

Seema Malhotra says the gender imbalance is 'staggering' (PA Archive/PA Images)

Brexit “is now becoming just another job for the boys”, according to a group of female Labour MPs who have signed a letter to Theresa May urging her to review the gender balance of the government’s EU negotiating team.

Pointing out that women form 51 per cent of the UK population and 32 per cent of parliament, they said that only one out of nine or 11 per cent of civil servants listed by the Department for Exiting the EU as members of the core team for the talks.

“Our European counterparts, on the other hand, have women in nearly half of their team’s positions,” they write.

Arguing that leaving the bloc will have major implications for women, it says that the negotiations “will need women’s voices on mainstream issues like the economy as well as on directly addressing, for example, how we maintain workplace rights – much of which are underpinned by EU legislation.”

If workers’ rights were watered down they add that it would “impact women the most, from maternity leave to discrimination in the workplace.”

Among the signatories are Yvette Cooper, Harriet Harman, Labour’s women and equalities minister, Sarah Champion and Seema Malhotra, who is a member of parliament’s Brexit select committee.

Ms Malhotra told The Guardian it was “staggering” that Ms May had “allowed our negotiating team to have as low a level of women’s representation as parliament had 25 years ago.”

The only woman on the list of the nine key players in negotiations that The department put out the names last month is Catherine Webb, who is director of market access and budget.

Oliver Robbins, the department’s permanent secretary, and his deputy is Philip Rycroft. Others include Glyn Williams, the prime minister’s national security adviser, Mark Sedwill, Simon Case Alex Ellis, and Mark Bowman.

Sir Tim Barrow, who is effectively the UK’s ambassador to the EU was also included.

Ms Malhotra said Ms May's “administration should be leading the way, not taking us backwards", adding the danger was that women would emerge from Brexit "with fewer rights.”

Comparing the line up to “the Kremlin in the 1950s”, Ms Harman said: “This is the old boys’ network at the top of the civil service laid bare – this is not a meritocracy, it is a boys’ club.”

A Conservative source said: “The prime minister is the person ultimately in charge of the Brexit negotiations and is a woman. I would also point out that Labour have never elected a female leader.”