Confusion and controversy surrounds the appointment of the Government’s new Minister for Women and Equalities after days of speculation about who would be given the job.

Multiple announcements about Keir Starmer’s new Cabinet came within hours of Labour’s victory on Friday, in a display of clarity and decisiveness from the new administration – but with one striking omission.

Anneliese Dodds had held the position in the Shadow Cabinet for nearly three years and was widely expected to take up the Government role, which covers both women’s and transgender rights, following the party’s landslide victory last week.

But on Saturday, at the first Cabinet meeting of Starmer’s new Government, Ms Dodds was present behind a place-card referring to a position in International Development but with no official announcement confirming this, no mention of the Women and Equalities position, and no announcement about who the new Women and Equalities Minister would be.

Throughout the weekend, as questions were raised both on social media and within Labour ranks about why Ms Dodds seemingly hadn’t been given the role – and who would be appointed in her place – concern grew about what lay behind the silence.

Labour insiders told i they didn’t understand what was happening with the appointment and were baffled by the secrecy and the delay. Others wondered if stalling was deliberate to avoid any controversy about the appointment overshadowing the rest of the Cabinet announcements, and what this might suggest about how the new Government is going to approach equality issues.

Early on Monday morning, there was still no announcement, the Government’s Equality Hub told i it did not know who had been appointed to the role, only for the 10 Downing Street X (Twitter) account to then announce Ms Dodds as the new Minister for Women and Equalities.

But shortly after, an equality hub spokesperson told i that Bridget Phillipson had been appointed as Minister for Women and Equalities (as well as Education Secretary), while Ms Dodds had become Minister of State for Women and Equalities within the education department – which initially appeared to hold a narrower brief than Ms Phillipson under whom she would be working.

The Government website, however, named Ms Phillipson as the Minister for Women and Equalities.

i understands that Ms Dodds will hold day-to-day responsibility for the portfolio. A spokesperson for the Prime Minister, said, “Anneliese Dodds will be the Minister for Women and Equalities” and will be the “lead minister” and attending Cabinet but “for constitutional purposes you also need someone who’s a full cabinet member having the brief as part of their role.”

The decision by Starmer to name both Ms Dodds and Ms Phillipson also highlights a change in his approach to the role itself. In opposition, Labour (since 2017) named the role Shadow Secretary of State, underscoring its importance within the Shadow Cabinet.

But now in office, the role has been split between two ministers and is not given a Secretary of State title, in what some would regard as a lowering of its standing within government.

A Downing Street spokesperson, however, denied that the role had been downgraded, reaffirming that Ms Dodds would still be attending Cabinet, and would still have overall control of the brief.

Ms Dodds had already been demoted on the Labour front bench, having previously been Shadow Chancellor – a position she held from April 2020 to May 2021.

As well as the Women and Equalities position, however, Ms Dodds was also made Minister for International Development, and on Monday night tweeted saying she was “honoured to be appointed” to both roles. “I will rebuild our development reputation in genuine partnership with the Global South to deliver economic growth, climate action and equality in all we do.”

The Women and Equalities brief includes matters relating to race, ethnicity, social mobility, equality law, women and LGBT people – and as such comprises issues affecting both women and transgender people which together became one of the most incendiary subjects of the election campaign and the last two years of the Conservative Government.

Politicians, including Starmer, were repeatedly asked what a woman is by several interviewers, with some MPs stumbling over their answers.

Conservative cabinet ministers frequently used the subject of women and trans people to taunt Labour as a key battleground opened up, while Labour and backbench Tories accused the then Government of stoking culture wars.

The eventual announcements of the appointees were met with a mixed reaction. Writing on X, Jayne Ozanne, a former government LGBT adviser, described the hiring of Ms Dodds as “excellent news for so many people around the world, especially LGBT people”.

JK Rowling, however, who has questioned Labour’s commitment to women’s rights, appeared to deride Ms Dodd’s selection by posting part of a BBC interview in which Ms Dodds explained that there are differences between legal and medical definitions of a woman.

“Naively, I thought it was our lawmakers’ job to resolve complexities, not add to the confusion,” the children’s author wrote on X. UK law states that people who obtain gender recognition certificates are legally recognised in their acquired gender. This means that in Britain, as with many countries, trans women can be legally defined as a woman.

The Fawcett Society, the longstanding, high-profile charity for women, applauded the appointments describing Ms Phillipson and Ms Dodds as “brilliant women”, writing on X: “We’re pleased to see not one but two people tasked with the critical work in the women and equalities portfolio. We would love to have seen a dedicated Secretary of State post and we’ll keep pushing for that.”

Ms Phillipson and Ms Dodds have tried to reduce the toxicity of debates surrounding women’s and trans’ rights, and variously affirmed their party’s commitment to protections for both.

In a recent BBC interview about government guidance to teachers for children with gender dysphoria, Ms Phillipson said, “Let’s take the heat out of it, let’s do this properly and seriously.” But LGBT+ Labour said in May it was “incredibly disappointed” that Ms Dodds had met with the LGB Alliance, considered by many as an anti-trans pressure group.