Parties must reveal rejected ethnic and disabled candidates
The proposal will help tackle the lack of diversity in parliament, the Speaker's conference believes
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Wednesday, 25, Nov 2009 12:00
By Emmeline Saunders
Political parties will be forced to reveal how many female, ethnic and disabled people are rejected as potential parliamentary candidates to help tackle the lack of diversity in Westminster.
The proposal, backed by a committee chaired by Speaker John Bercow, is likely to be accepted after winning support from all the main parties.
Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have each acknowledged that diversity of representation is neither what it should be, nor what they want it to be.
Giving evidence before the Speaker's conference in October, they agreed the Commons was not adequately representative of people who are not white, male, middle-aged, middle-class and able-bodied.
A report by the Speaker's conference said transparency would encourage people from more diverse backgrounds apply to stand as MPs.
But it criticised party records in promoting diversity as "uneven".
"The fact remains that at present the House of Commons continues to be largely white, male, middle-aged and middle-class: people from under-represented groups who are putting themselves forward for selection are still proportionately less likely to be selected, or to be selected for a seat the party thinks it can win, than their counterparts," the report stated.
The conference members said political parties are "effectively the gatekeepers to the House of Commons", and in order to encourage diversity, they would have to become the "agents of change".
The three main parties and Plaid Cymru already collect data on the way candidates are selected but do not make this information public.
The conference is putting forward an amendment to the equality bill requiring data on their candidates' diversity to be declared biannually to be posted online by each of the parties.
If enacted, this would extend by another 15 years the existing clause which allows political parties to use all-women shortlists.
Anne Begg, Labour vice-chair of the conference, said: "Unless the performance of the different parties can be compared with each other, or with the performance of parties throughout the world, there is likely to be insufficient pressure for the political parties to pursue the cultural change which is needed from them before we can have a House of Commons fit for the 21st century."