Nick Clegg has told of his despair at the “macho, chest-beating, testosterone-driven” atmosphere of the House of Commons.
The Liberal Democrat leader singled out Prime Minister’s Questions as particularly “out of step with modern life”.
It comes as one of Britain’s leading businesswomen called politicians “braying toffs” who are turning women off politics.
Whistles chief executive Jane Shepherdson said she was considering a political career after Ukip’s European election surge.
Mr Clegg made his comments after being asked what he would change about the culture of the Commons at an event organised by the Mumsnet website. The Deputy Prime Minister warned that if Westminster failed to reform, the “crisis” of public confidence in politics would worsen.
He said: “It’s just ridiculous. You can’t even call people by their name. You can’t even address people like human beings.
“And so the whole thing is in a language which wasn’t used since 1867 and in a kind of highly aggressive, macho, chest beating, testosterone-driven idiom which is deeply off-putting to any normal person.”
Speaking in Red magazine, Ms Shepherdson, 53, said women suffered from a lack of self-esteem and felt marginalised when faced with “alpha males” and “thrusting, aggressive behaviour”. She added: “I did think, after [the European elections], maybe I need to get politically active. It’s just so depressing. So maybe it’s time.
“[Politicians are] mostly a lot of braying upper-middle-class toffs and that is extremely off-putting for normal women.”
She compared male dominance of politics to the boardrooms of leading fashion companies.
She said: “It is relatively typical in that you have alpha males; thrusting, aggressive behaviour; a huge amount of confrontation. You’d go into these meetings and they’d be shouting, ‘What the f*** do you call that?’
“It does not bring out the best in people. They were scared. So then you get self-censorship creeping in and that’s quite destructive.”
