New Education Secretary and Minister for Equalities dismissed constituent’s complaint as “typical from a man”

Two days into the job, and it’s emerged that even before her appointment as Education Secretary, Gove’s replacement had repeatedly shown her true, disturbing colours. Alongside voting against equal marriage, Nicky Morgan MP, the new Education Secretary who is also the Minister for Women and Equality, dismissed one of her constituent’s e-mails as “typical from a man”.

Gary Chadwick, who lives in Morgan’s Loughborough constituency,  e-mailed his MP regarding her opposition to same-sex marriage. Mr Chadwick, who is in a civil partnership, expressed his concern over the incompatibility between Morgan’s brief as Women’s Minister – namely to promote “equality for all women regardless of their sexuality” – and her “strident opposition” to gay marriage. Offering evidence, Chadwick pointed out that Morgan had said that marriage should “only between a man and a woman.” 

Morgan replied to her constituent’s concern with a one-line response – she told him that his e-mail was “typical from a man”, and he should “watch what I do in the role and see for yourself”. Not the kind of response you’d expect from your MP , nor exactly in the spirit of equality now, is it?

Chadwick told Sky News:

“It has always seemed to me to be completely incompatible for Nicola Morgan to be Minister for Equalities and Women, when she is in favour of discrimination against gay women and gay people in general. It surprises me that she has retained this role now that she has been promoted to Education Secretary, but her promotion is just about shallow presentation and nothing else. As a privileged woman with a private education and no personal experience of the state secondary system where 95% of our children are educated she is no better qualified to be Education Secretary either.”

Cameron, who gave Morgan both Education and Equalities brief on top of her existing Minister for Women position (which she’d been given when Maria Miller resigned) seems to recognise the conflict of interest over which is Chadwick concerned.Because, as we wrote earlier in the week, he’s put Nick Boles, not Morgan, in charge of same-sex marriage.

It’s a pity the PM didn’t bother to think a bit more carefully before he made her responsible for Equality, or, at the very least, remind her that a large part of her job is to deal with constituents’ concerns, not dismiss them because of their sex.