Mandatory quotas for the number of female parliamentary candidates could be set unless there is a significant increase in the number of women MPs at the next election.
A cross-party review concludes that legislation may become necessary to force political parties to field more female candidates. The Speaker’s Conference also called for the law to be changed to allow parties to exclude white candidates when drawing up shortlists.
The conference, chaired by John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, was commissioned by Gordon Brown to investigate the under-representation in the House of women, ethnic minorities and the disabled.
The report says: “If the political parties fail to make significant progress on women’s representation at the 2010 general election, Parliament should give serious consideration to the introduction of prescriptive quotas, ensuring that all political parties adopt some form of equality guarantee in time for the following general election.” The committee also calls for the equivalent of all-women shortlists to be introduced for black and ethnic minority candidates. It acknowledged that all-BME (black and minority ethnic) shortlists were “controversial”.
So far only Labour has imposed all-women shortlists on local parties. However, David Cameron angered Tory activists when he announced that he will consider using all-women shortlists to fill vacancies this year. Mr Cameron has also set an informal quota on ministerial jobs, saying that a third should be held by women by the end of the next Tory parliament.
Anne Begg, vice-chairman of the Speaker’s Conference, said: “The case for equality of representation has not yet been won.
“In most cases, it remains more difficult for a candidate who does not fit the ‘white, male, middle-class’ norm to be selected, particularly if the seat is considered winnable.”
Harriet Harman, Labour’s Deputy Leader and the Minister for Women and Equality, said: “We should take all the steps we can to increase diversity in Parliament, which must reflect the country in which we live and the public we serve.”
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