Brent’s LibDem MP Sarah Teather has been appointed Minister of State for Children and Families at the Department of Education by David Cameron. Sarah will work under the new education secretary Michael Gove who had immediately renamed this department from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). Top. Priority. A surprise appointment? Others had suggested housing…. A quick search shows that Sarah has taken an interest in this area in the past - she has asked around 50 questions of (what was) the DCSF and taken an interest in education issues within other Departments. Sarah was also the Lib Dems Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills in 2006.
Sarah joins the small group of women in David Cameron’s LibCon cabinet from the equally small group of women in the Lib Dems. Now this season of Britain’s Got Men In Suits has finished (watch out for the special Autumn edition folks!) we can see that Men In Suits is pretty much all we’ve got. The gender imbalance round Cameron’s cabinet table is lamentable.
Sarah in joined by Lynne Featherstone, appointed Under Secretary of State for Equalities. Congratulations to them both.
UPDATE - newly appointed Liberal Democrat minister has attacked the lack of women in the government saying she is “very disappointed” by the level of female representation in the coalition and said she has told David Cameron “we must do better”.