Setback for David Cameron as Tories trail Labour on female candidates

An analysis of Tory selections reveals the party is still lagging behind Labour in gender balance.

The figures highlight the importance to the party of hanging onto Joanne Cash as a candidate this week.

The 40-year-old barrister was reinstalled as contender for the target seat of Westminster North after the Conservative leadership swung behind her to crush critics in her local association.

Ms Cash is a leading advocate of all-women shortlists and impressed the leadership with her efforts to engage with voters in the poorer parts of her constituency.

But a new study, conducted by Insight Public Affairs for BBC London's Politics Show this weekend, found Ms Cash was among the very few women contesting winnable Commons seats.

With selections for nearly all the capital's constituencies completed, Labour has chosen women in 30 out of 70 seats (43 per cent), compared with the Tories' 17 (24 per cent).

In the 17 key seats that the Conservatives are targeting, just five of their candidates (29 per cent) are female.

The Lib-Dems appear to be doing as badly as the Tories. Of the 52 candidates they have selected to date, just 14 are women (27 per cent).

Nationally, only 17 Tory MPs are women — nine per cent — and the party has barely made progress since it had 13 women in 1931. Labour has 95 female MPs (27 per cent), and the Lib-Dems nine (14 per cent).

Mr Cameron raised hackles in the party late last year when he floated the idea of imposing all-women shortlists on recalcitrant local associations.

He appeared to back off the proposal last month, claiming it "remains an option". If the Conservatives win the election they will have more than 60 women MPs, the party insists.

The Conservatives are ahead in the youth stakes, however. Almost a quarter of their candidates are aged between 36 and 40. By contrast, a third of Labour hopefuls, including MPs seeking re-election, are over 61.

John Lehal, managing director of Insight Public Affairs, said: "Although making some progress, the Conservatives are falling short of Cameron's high expectations to select more women. The watershed of female elected representatives that Cameron hoped for — and that Blair enjoyed in 1997 — is unlikely to materialise."

In London, Labour have selected prospective parliamentary candidates in all but one seat and the Conservatives have yet to select candidates in three. The Lib-Dems are yet to select PPCs in 21.

The Politics Show for London is on BBC1 at midday on Sunday.