Downing Street has not used a female minister to lead its coronavirus press conference for more than six months, a tally by the Guardian has found, prompting accusations that Boris Johnson does not value the women in his team. It has also emerged that the government has sent out no female minister as its main representative on the regular morning round of TV and radio interviews for five weeks – and has done so only once in the past two months. Johnson has previously been accused of overseeing an “incredibly blokey” government, with the ministers and aides he most relies on being almost exclusively male – which critics say can affect perspectives on policy decisions. Of 20 cabinet ministers under Johnson, 15 are male. An examination of Downing Street’s list of coronavirus press conferences found that Priti Patel, the home secretary, was the last female minister to front one, on 22 May. The briefings were almost daily on weekdays until the summer, after which they became more intermittent. While Johnson and the health secretary, Matt Hancock, have led a substantial proportion of recent briefings, since Patel appeared seven other male ministers have also been used, including the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden. Downing Street also designates a minister to handle morning appearances on radio and TV news programmes nearly every day of the week apart from Saturday. Analysis of recent appearances shows that the last female minister to be used by No 10 for this was Michelle Donelan, the junior education minister, on 11 November. Before that, the previous woman was Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, on 14 October. Caroline Nokes, the Conservative former minister who chairs the Commons women and equalities committee, said Downing Street “has a blind spot when it comes to using female ministers to get its messages across”. Nokes told the Guardian: “Whatever the issue, the first port of call is always a male minister. I don’t know why that is – there are many really competent female ministers but the media team either forget they exist or just prefer to use men.” Marsha De Cordova, Labour’s shadow women and equalities secretary, said: “What’s really worrying about the absence of a female minister fronting the government’s responses to Covid is that it exposes a lack of diversity at the decision-making table in government. It’s no wonder that the government has paid such little attention to the impact of Covid on women.” Wera Hobhouse, the Lib Dem MP whose party brief includes women and equalities, said the lack of female voices “is starting to look ridiculous”. She said: “Given the incompetence of this male-dominated government and the confusion they’ve caused through muddled messages throughout this pandemic, perhaps they would benefit from more women making decisions and communicating with the public. “We need diverse voices in parliament and in government to make sure all sections of our communities are represented and listened to. Diversity leads to better decisions and a better democracy.” Allegra Stratton, the prime minister’s press secretary, rejected the idea that the lack of female ministers for press conferences and media interviews meant Johnson did not trust them. She said: “He does trust the women in his team. I was not aware of that tally, and I will take it away and have a word with the prime minister about it.” It is understood that Patel was being lined up for morning media interviews on Thursday.