New drive to get more female Tory MPs
A new campaign to get more female Conservative MPs elected into parliament is being launched today.
The women2win campaign, backed by shadow culture secretary Theresa May, is calling for changes in the way Tory candidates are chosen.
Ms May believes that introducing an ‘A-list’ of top candidates to target the safest seats, and ensuring that half of these are women, would help improve the party’s gender balance.
Speaking at the launch of a Hansard Society report into women in parliament last week, Ms May said: “Positive action, for so long a dirty word among Conservatives, is gaining support where it matters, among the men.”
She added: “If we cannot find 50 grade-A, top-class women who want to offer themselves to the British people as Conservative candidates in the next election then we should probably all give up now!”
There are currently only 17 female Tory MPs – just nine per cent of the total parliamentary party – compared to ten Lib Dem (16 per cent) and 98 Labour female MPs (28 per cent).
In parliament as a whole, there are only 128 female MPs – less than 20 per cent, causing the House of Commons to be ranked 51st in the inter-parliamentary union league table of women in national parliaments, below Rwanda, South Africa and Cuba.
Today’s campaign aims to raise money to support female candidates and encourage more women to stand for election, while it would also provide training and advice, and provide a forum for female candidates to exchange ideas and policy suggestions.
But it stops short at endorsing all-women shortlists – a tactic the Hansard Society has warned is the only way to achieve an equal number of men and women in parliament.
This position echoes that of both candidates for the Tory leadership, David Cameron and David Davis, who argue that the final say on who should stand should always be left up to a constituency.
Mr Davis believes that all-women shortlists – which have so far only been adopted by the Labour party – would only create tension between male and female candidates. Instead, he suggests better support for candidates, something backed by his rival.
They disagree on the idea of drawing up an A-list of top candidates, however – Mr Cameron is in favour of this, believing it would improve female participation while also leaving the final decision to local parties, but Mr Davis believes it is a step too far.
Last night, Peter Lilley, who is backing the women2win campaign, explained that the Conservative party had to take action to improve its proportion of female MPs.
“It is reasonable to suppose that half the available talent pool is women and we are not getting our fair share of women Conservative MPs in parliament at present. We therefore have to take more proactive steps to get them in,” he told Channel Four News.
However, Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, warned against going down the route of positive discrimination, saying women should fight for their seats on exactly the same basis as men.
“It is my very strong belief that every woman in the House of Commons has got the right to look every man in the Commons from the prime minister downwards, in the eye, to know that she got there on exactly the same basis as he got there,” she told the same programme.
