Statement on Conservative Party announcement on female candidates
Ben Wilson, Executive Director
| Equality and Human Rights Commission
Following the Conservative Party's announcement regarding female candidates, Ben Wilson, Executive Director at the Equality and Human Rights Commission released the statement below.
It is essential to a healthy democracy that everyone has the right to participate fully in all aspects of political life.
Whilst we’ve reached a record level of female representatives in Parliament, there is much more progress to be made and we welcome the proposals announced today by the Conservative Party which are a positive step towards achieving gender equality in politics and ensuring that women’s voices and experiences are included in the democratic process.
To bring about real change the Government must identify and remove barriers to women’s participation in politics including the intimidation of female parliamentarians and issues around parental leave and flexible working. We repeat our call for mandatory reporting on parliamentary candidate diversity data for political parties
