Women in the Conservative Party

The Times printed an article this week which stated that the Conservative Party had made no improvement in getting more women into Parliament. It was complete nonsense.

The facts are:

a) 80 women have been selected, most selected in winnable constituencies. If the Conservatives are elected with an overall majority of just one seat they will have 55 Conservative female MPs. More than a threefold increase over the current number of 17 female MPs.

b) There are 7 women in the Shadow Cabinet. Given there are only 17 female MPs women, this means that more than 40% of our female MPs are in the Shadow Cabinet. This is a sign of how committed to women’s advancement David Cameron is.

I have fought long and hard to get more women into roles in public life and Parliament. No-one though should be given a role just because of their gender or race. It should be because they are the best person for the job with the right skills and experience. We want the best men and women in the Shadow Cabinet so that they can deliver much needed change for our country.

There is naturally more to be done of course to increase female representation at all levels of public life and we need to encourage more women to come forward to stand for election – both locally and nationally.

Photo: Theresa May MP, Mary Macleod and some of the female candidates who are standing at the next election