At the general election that year, the number of women in the Commons jumped to (an albeit still tiny) 41. Some talk about the sexism – and the solidarity
Gordon Brown. David Blunkett. Robin Cook. Margaret Beckett. Mo Mowlam. Jack Straw. John Prescott. Tony Blair’s first cabinet in had some truly magnificent big beasts in it and the voters knew it. Indeed, I feel confident that many of these towering figures were household names even before New Labour’s famous 1997 landslide.