Cameron urged to promote more women in Commons

Published on Thursday 13 May 2010 23:00

DAVID Cameron has been urged to promote more women after naming only three female MPs in his cabinet.

Labour veteran Margaret Beckett said all parties "have to do more" to support women in politics after Home Secretary Theresa May and Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman were confirmed as the only two to gain senior roles in the coalition Cabinet. MP Cheryl Gillan, thye Welsh Secretary, and minister without portfolio Baroness Warsi are the only other women to feature in the cabinet.

Ceri Goddard, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, called for political leaders to "really put their money where their mouth is" by following examples set in Europe.

When asked whether the lack of women would alienate the electorate, Ms Beckett, the long-serving MP for Derby South, said: "One of the reasons that they probably haven't got more women in the Cabinet in senior roles is simply because of the dearth of people coming through. And that's a consequence of the lack of encouragement and the lack of bringing people forward in the past.

"In the Liberal party, for example, they talked for years and years and years about bringing more women in but it simply hasn't happened."

New Prime Minister and Old Etonian David Cameron leads a Cabinet of ministers who are mostly male and private school and Oxbridge-educated.

Among a host of Tories who missed out on a Cabinet position because of the coalition deal was Theresa Villiers.

On the lack of a woman in the running for the next leadership of the Labour Party, Ms Beckett said: "It's a sadness in many ways but I think it's a consequence of there not being enough women coming through and not having been given that level of experience where it makes people say 'yes they're OK'."

When asked what should be done to address the shortage of women, she said: "We, the parties have to do more to support them."

Out of 16 Cabinet appointments already announced, nine ministers, including Mr Cameron himself, attended fee-paying schools, while 11 went to either Oxford or Cambridge universities.