Top Tories call for women quotas

Theresa May: wants more women Tory MPs

Two senior Conservatives have called on the next party leader to introduce quotas for women and ethnic minorities on parliamentary candidate short-lists.

Shadow cabinet office minister Andrew Lansley and shadow minister for women Theresa May fell short of demanding all-women short-lists.

But they said it was essential that lists were balanced and representative.

It is essential that, in future, we ensure constituencies make their selection from balanced lists and any discrimination in the constituency selection will be able to be identified and corrected

Theresa May and Andrew Lansley

They urged other members of the shadow cabinet to make the move a priority following the outcome of the leadership battle between Iain Duncan Smith and Ken Clarke in September.

The issue of all-women short-lists was raised by Michael Portillo during the first stage of the leadership campaign when MPs whittled down five contenders to two.

It was widely seen as being one of the factors in his failure to make it through to the final round.

Full authority

Ms May and Mr Lansley said the next party chairman should have full authority to manage candidate selection and be accountable directly to the leader and the board for achieving that objective.

A new, shorter candidates' list should be drawn up for "winnable" seats - the seats necessary to win the next general election.

Andrew Lansley: Close ally of current leader William Hague

The list should consist of a limited number of candidates of proven ability, half of whom should be women and a representative portion should be drawn from ethnic minorities.

"The size of the list would depend upon the progress in identifying women with the necessary experience and ability, willing to fight winnable seats," the Tory frontbenchers said in a joint statement.

Conservative associations would continue to be free to conduct their selections from the new, more representative candidates' list.

They said: "At earlier stages of the Conservative leadership contest, it was widely recognised that action should be taken to secure a substantial increase in the representative of women and those from ethnic minority communities among Conservative candidates and especially in Conservative-held seats in Parliament.

Revised

"Now that the debate is to be extended across the country, we wish to take this opportunity to urge upon our new leader that he should take immediate action to advance this objective.

"We believe this revised system will enable constituencies to continue to select prospective candidates on their merits.

"It will not mean all-women short-lists. It does mean, however, that constituency associations will in future select from a representative group of candidates.

"It is essential that, in future, we ensure constituencies make their selection from balanced lists and any discrimination in the constituency selection will be able to be identified and corrected."

Contribution welcomed

A spokesman for Mr Duncan Smith said: "Iain welcomes this contribution to the debate.

"As leader, he will task the new party chairman with examining these issues, seeking input from local party associations.

"We must eradicate any bias against women in candidate selection - the focus should be on ensuring we have a broad range of high quality candidates in the Conservative Party from whom individual local associations can chose the best for them."