“Women are not tough enough to lead Labour” read the headline on page six of the Times on Friday, above an article about things I had said concerning the leadership.

The relevant quote from me was: “Neither Yvette [Cooper] nor Liz [Kendall] can steer the party through the challenging few years ahead of us when we need a leader who can reach out to all wings of the party and provide unity.”

The Times itself has acknowledged in emails that the headline was 'stupid', 'misleading' and 'sexist'

The headline was wrong at every level. It suggests I said the words in inverted commas in the headline. I didn’t (and nobody else in the article did either). And the headline suggests I think that women are not tough enough to lead the Labour party. That is not my view and I said nothing that suggested it was.

The storm has been caused by the inaccurate headline.

The Times itself has acknowledged in emails that the headline was “stupid”, “misleading” and “sexist”. It has changed the headline over the story, though not over the index page.

I was part of a government that has a proud record on women’s equality, from the national minimum wage that reduced the gender pay gap; to action on domestic violence, which recognised that for many women home is the most dangerous place; to childcare on a scale never offered to parents before. But it is clear that more needs to be done.

The question for our party is: who is best to lead us at this very difficult time in our history? Of course Liz and Yvette are talented and tough enough to lead. My view though is that Andy Burnham is best.

We have a monumental task to regain confidence and build public support for policies to tackle childhoods lost to poverty, ambitious young people thwarted by their lack of skills, and hundreds of thousands desperate for a place to call home.

We need a leader who can best formulate the centre-left case for government, unite the party behind that case, and persuade the public to elect us to govern.

And we must also have a leader who can build a team, who can ensure our values are embedded in our policies, and in the way we do our politics.

Of course, the brunt of this government’s dreadful austerity will be borne by women. If we do not develop policies that provide answers and reflect the needs of the communities we serve as a political party, and that can persuade the public to elect us again, we will be able to do nothing for them. Andy will be judged on his record.

He fought within and outside government for the Hillsborough families. I saw him do it. He stood up for people who needed him. It cost him to do so. He was compassionate, unbending and brave. They could not have had a better champion.

He has a big vision and will drive radical reform. He has driven the policy to join up health and social care. He has done so when people within and outside the party said he should not. He has made that policy one now accepted by all.

He is a successful campaigner. He stood up for the NHS through the past five years of opposition, and despite the differing views within the party about the correct stance to take on NHS issues, he united the party around the positions he took. We ended up 25% ahead of the Tories on health service issues.

He connects with the public. People who meet him like him. They like his warmth and his openness.

In the wake of our defeat none of the candidates for leader are going to have all the answers now. But Andy Burnham has the character, the values and the track record which make me think he is best equipped to lead the party on the journey ahead.

If the country gives him the chance in 2020 I have no doubt that he would be a prime minister the party and the country would be proud of, and would make our country a much fairer and more equal place to live.