THE whole world it seems has waded into a media-led frenzied lather over Jeremy Corbyn and the gender balance of his shadow cabinet.

Forget looking calmly and matter of factly at the stats, as soon as it is mentioned on Twitter or on the front page of the Daily Mail it has to be fact — “Jeremy Corbyn is a sexist Labour leader who thinks women should be in the kitchen and coincidentally he eats babies for breakfast!”

Maybe I went a little far above, but the storm and controversy surrounding the choosing of Corbyn’s first ever shadow cabinet was absolutely devoid of fact at all.

Jeremy was put up against the right-wing press wall and shot — something no doubt he will get used to over the next five years.

The facts are that he appointed 16 women and 15 men to the shadow cabinet and actually it is the very first time more women than men have been appointed — something Blair didn’t do, for the record.

So we have 52 per cent of the JC shadow cabinet female, compared with 33 per cent in David Cameron’s current Tory Cabinet, and he had to reshuffle that to even get this amount after stinging criticism.

Angela Eagle is appointed as shadow business secretary and will deputise for Corbyn at PMQs on occasion.

The new shadow energy secretary is the inspirational Lisa Nandy, and Lucy Powell who had considerable experience as children’s minister under Ed Miliband is the new shadow education secretary. Talented women all.

Could Corbyn possibly have appointed people on talent and ability?

Why should Parliament not want the best person in the best possible role for their talents? Business would do it, so why should it be any different for people running the country?

So the whole furore is a right-wing media storm in a teacup, dreamt up by reporters like those at the Daily Mail who criticised Jeremy at the infamous war memorial service for “wearing a non-matching jacket and trousers.” Oh, the impudence of our Labour leader!

Come on, people. Let the right-wing press get carried away on their complete raft of downright lies on gender but let Labour members like us and our trade union comrades stand up and report the facts.

Would it have been such a criminal offence if the shadow cabinet gender balance was slightly more male-dominated anyway?

Does everything in the Labour Party have to be so clear-cut that we should be constantly looking at the stats and appointing purely on gender balance?

It makes me shudder to think Labour could have insisted on a female leader, for example — Liz Kendall by default.

We are going down the right path by ensuring we approach 50 per cent female representation within Labour by having all-women shortlists.

However once that has been achieved and upheld, whoever our leaders and shadow cabinet are has to be based on merit and the ability to do the job, in my opinion.

It wouldn’t be right to give Powell the task of being shadow chancellor as her talents lie in the education portfolio.

Likewise, I couldn’t see John McDonnell, the new shadow chancellor, taking on being the secretary of state for Wales.

It’s nonsensical to think we have to appoint a woman and even just any woman merely to fulfil a 50 per cent quota. Many female MPs find this patronising too, but you would be surprised at the amount of women who do think a woman should be appointed regardless of ability.

I definitely see no merit in appointing just anyone to have the job of potentially running the country in 2020. I want the cream of Labour’s talent rising to the top. Hence why I voted Tom Watson as deputy leader.

Jeremy needs a strong deputy who will stand up to the media and Tom’s the man. My choices for leadership were based on talent and suitability for the job, as were many other members.

Corbyn, more than most male MPs, has an enviable track record of speaking out on female representation, campaigning for funding for women’s refuges and intrinsically knowing that women are bearing the brunt of austerity in caring and work-related roles.

Is he sexist as the right-wing media portray him? Never!

Working-class people who are coming back to the party in droves — 40,000-plus so far since last Saturday — want our party to look like the people who they represent.

Of course we want to see more female MPs in the party and of course we want to see them gain promotion to the shadow cabinet. But the bottom line is that they have. And I for one will be looking forward to seeing how the 16 women in the shadow cabinet shape our future party policies, but I will also be equally watching the 15 men too.

We have changed the face of our party. Jeremy has changed the faces and the talents of the shadow cabinet. Now let them all get on with their job of gaining power in 2020 and stop the gender carping.

• Bernadette Horton is a Labour Party and trade union activist.