Andrea Leadsom criticises civil service head’s Garrick Club involvement

A government minister has criticised Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, for having been a member of the men-only Garrick Club and said she wouldn’t join if it began admitting women.

Andrea Leadsom, a junior health minister and former Conservative leadership contender, said she thought it was “extraordinary” that the cabinet secretary had “only just discovered” the club excluded women.

Case, the head of the civil service, resigned his membership of the Garrick on Wednesday after initially arguing that he had joined the club to reform it from the inside.

This week the Guardian published details of the Garrick club’s closely guarded membership list, which includes senior politicians, judges, lawyers, leaders of publicly funded arts institutions and King Charles.

Asked whether he could foster a genuine culture of inclusiveness in the civil service while being a member of a men-only club, Case said: “If you believe profoundly in reform of an institution, by and large it’s easier to do if you join it to make the change from within rather than chuck rocks from the outside.”

Asked whether Conservative MPs such as Michael Gove, Oliver Dowden and Jacob Rees-Mogg should resign their memberships, Leadsom told LBC: “I really don’t care.