In August 2015, Moore received media attention and criticism after he wrote an article for "The Spectator" about the 2015 Labour Party leadership election, titled "Have Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall got the looks for a leadership contest?", in which he wrote "there is an understanding that no leader—especially, despite the age of equality, a woman—can look grotesque on television and win a general election" and discussed the looks of the two female candidates in detail. The article was condemned by Liz Kendall, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon and Tessa Jowell, candidate for the Labour nomination for Mayor of London and former Minister and MP, along with several journalists and MPs from various parties.