Equalities czar tells David Cameron: Cabinet needs more women

 
More women needed: David Cameron
Reuters
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David Cameron and Nick Clegg must “put their house in order” over the lack of women Cabinet ministers, a Government equalities czar warned today.

They were told that with “steel, determination and focus”, they could significantly increase the number of women at the “top of politics”.

In an interview with The Standard, Lord Davies of Abersoch said it was “extraordinary, unbelievable, truly incredible” that there had only been 35 female Cabinet ministers in British history.

As the Government’s independent adviser on women on boards and a former trade minister, he stressed gender imbalance had been tackled across a swathe of professions.

“I’m struck in my time as a Government minister for a couple of years how many women there were in the Civil Service and in BIS (the business department). It was just fantastic.

“So what I find amazing is Government departments, health authorities, universities, you name it, the NHS, it’s all been put right.

“The two areas that haven’t put it right - one is politics, and the second is the boards. So they need to put their house in order.”

The Labour peer declined to comment on the recent reshuffle which plunged Mr Cameron into a row over the number of female Cabinet ministers.

But he said: “There is a message in society which is ‘we want equality and equality leads to better performance, and it’s in every walk of life’.

“The fact that women account for 17.3 per cent of the FTSE 100 directorships and that percentage has risen so dramatically in such a short period of time, it highlights to us all what you can do with a bit of steel, determination and focus.

“If we can do that in 18 months, I’m sure as hell there are other aspects of society can also put their house in order.”

Mr Cameron promoted Maria Miller into the Cabinet as Culture Secretary and Theresa Villiers as Northern Ireland Secretary, but Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan and Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman were axed.

Baroness Warsi lost her full membership of the Cabinet when she was moved from Tory party chairwoman to be a senior Foreign Office minister attending Cabinet.

Mr Cameron’s critics seized on the fact that the number of female full Cabinet ministers had gone down by one, while his aides argued that overall there were the same number of women around the No10 table.

There are 22 full Cabinet members, including four women, which rise to five if the further ten ministers who also attend the meetings are included.

Deputy Prime Minister Mr Clegg is also under intense pressure to promote more women as all five Liberal Democrats full Cabinet members are men, with education minister David Laws also attending.

The Prime Minister has pledged to have women in a third of ministerial posts by 2015.

At least two out of four female Conservative high-flyers from the 2010 intake, justice minister Helen Grant, childcare minister Liz Truss, health minister Anna Soubry and disability minister Esther McVey are being mooted for promotion into the Cabinet.

Liberal Democrat business minister Jo Swinson is also tipped to be made Scottish Secretary.

A No10 spokesman said: “We have the same number of women Cabinet ministers as before. And at the last reshuffle we brought in a number of excellent women at junior ministerial level. There is more to do but we are making progress.”

A Conservative spokesman added: “Before the 2010 General election there were 18 female Conservative MPs, that went up to nearly fifty after the election - this is good and important progress which we are looking to continue.”

Mr Clegg’s spokesman said: “Nick has been very open about the fact that he thinks our party in Westminster is too male and too pale.

“That is why he has introduced the Leadership Programme to change the make-up of the Liberal Democrats in the coming years.

“We currently have excellent female Lib Dem parliamentarians and ministers but everybody in the party accepts there should be more.”

Labour leader Ed Miliband’s 26-strong shadow Cabinet has ten women, a better share than the other main parties but still an under-representation of the wider population.

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