Nick Clegg calls Lib Dems “too male and too pale”
By Ruth Mckee
Nick Clegg has said he is ashamed of his party's lack of diversity in parliament, calling his Liberal Democrat colleagues "too male and too pale".
The deputy prime minister made the admission just days after Labour leader Ed Miliband promoted a number of women to top shadow cabinet posts and gave the shadow business portfolio to prominent black MP, Chuka Umunna.
"It is a very serious problem, It is a source of endless shame to me that the Liberal Democrat party I lead, which believes in the diversity of Great Britain in gender and everything else does not represent contemporary Britain in parliament,” Mr Clegg said.
"We are too male and too pale," he told an audience at Cheltenham Literature Festival.
Currently only seven of the Lib Dems' 57 MPs are female, and Mr Clegg blamed the lack of women in British politics on the "comically shrill, male and vitriolic" atmosphere of prime minister's questions.
"The whole tone of politics is very off-putting," he said. "It is almost guaranteed to put off anyone with a semblance of balance between home and work life."
However, the deputy prime minister appeared to dismiss the need for women-only shortlists, saying quotas of male and female candidates would only be a "sticking plaster solution”.
He added: "Personally, however, I think the situation is now so bad that I am prepared to use pretty well any sledgehammer to solve it.
"We have an intensive programme to help female candidates, mentor them and make sure they get selected."
