Cameron will impose all-women lists

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In a move which will anger sections of his party, the Tory leader said he was now prepared to impose all-women shortlists for the first time.

The move represents a significant shift for Mr Cameron, who has previously refused to endorse such a strategy despite his bid to increase female representation on the Tory benches.

Appearing before a Parliamentary inquiry into the lack of diversity in the Commons, he admitted many of the party's preferred female A-list candidates had been overlooked.

He said he hoped he would have "nearly 60" women Tory MPs after the next election - up from 19 now - in the event of a one-seat Conservative majority. But that was less than half of the 120 to 140 women MPs that Prime Minister Gordon Brown projected for Labour - the only party so far to adopt all-women shortlists.

Mr Cameron told the Speaker's Conference that the under-representation of women and black and ethnic minorities was a particular problem for the Conservative Party.

"It's a real problem for Parliament and it's been an even greater problem for my party, and one that I desperately want to address and have tried to address," he said.

Mr Cameron said the situation was "bad for politics" and that he would do "frankly whatever is necessary" to tackle the problem.

From January, Conservative Central Office would be providing the party's constituency associations with a shortlist of candidates from which to choose, he said. "It's my intention, if we continue as we are, that some of those shortlists will be all-women shortlists to help us boost the number of Conservative women MPs."

Many Tories are strongly opposed to all-women shortlists. Backbench MPs Ann Widdecombe and Philip Davies have been among the most outspoken critics of the idea.