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Tim Farron MP: We must show the world we mean business on diversity

by Steve Beasant on 8 March, 2016

timThe following article was written by the Leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron and published today on the Liberal Democrat Voice Website.

It’s International Women’s Day, when we celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.  But, the IWD website reminds us, the latest estimate of the World Economic Forum is that, at the present rate of progress, full parity between genders will not be achieved till 2133.  Our record in Britain, while improving, is doing so painfully slowly.  The pay gap between genders has not closed in spite of legislation, and has remained relatively consistent for the past 20 years.  Britain elected more female MPs than ever in May 2015, but still sits at 48th in the world league table, behind many of our European neighbours, and behind some of the world’s poorest nations. Lindsay Northover is right to point out that had it been based on the Lib Dems, the UK would be bottom, grouped with Yemen and Qatar.

Why is that? Well, because we have no women MPs any more, just 26% of our approved parliamentary candidates are women, and women are under-represented on many of our internal party committees.  We are in a similar situation where BAME, LGBT+ and disabled members are concerned.  I don’t know about you, but I find that shaming for a party that holds equality as one of its fundamental commitments.  In our constitution, we say that we “oppose all forms of entrenched privilege and inequality.” It’s time to show that we practice what we preach. 

We have an opportunity to do this at the Spring Conference in York, when we will be debating motion F20, Electing Diverse MPs, on Sunday morning.  While by law we can’t have shortlists reserved for candidates who are BAME or LGBT+, we can have all women shortlists (because women are not a minority), and we can have all-disabled shortlists (recognising the distinctly higher barriers candidates with disabilities face).  This motion proposes that we adopt all-women shortlists in seats where sitting MPs are standing down, and in some seats where we won more than 25% of the vote in 2015. It’s a way of ensuring that when it comes to the General Election in 2020, we have the best possible chance of returning several women MPs to Westminster, and setting our party back on track when it comes to standing up for equality and showing the world that we mean business on that front.

There are those, including women, who have resisted all women shortlists in the past,  Some say they ‘don’t want to be selected as a token’, but in our party, no woman ever could. Every female candidate has to be good enough to be approved and good enough to be short-listed by the local party. Any sub-standard ‘tokenistic’ candidate simply wouldn’t get to this stage, especially in our most fiercely contested seats. Some say that candidates should only be ‘selected on merit regardless of gender’, and that the ‘best person will always win’.  But the selection system is so skewed by factors like money and time, not to mention unconscious bias amongst local party members, so we cannot say that merit has triumphed if we have no women MPs at all.  Interestingly, many people in the party who might in the past have argued that all women shortlists were unacceptable are now telling me that they support the idea, as a time-limited targeted measure to get us out of this difficult situation. And I agree.

When we were in government, Vince Cable made it clear that he expected that FTSE 100 Boards should include at least 25% women, with the threat of quotas in the background.   During the last parliament, the number of women on those boards doubled, almost reaching the target Vince Cable and the Davies Commission set.  There was also a significant increase in the number of women on FTSE 250 boards.  That’s a fantastic achievement and one that we should be hugely proud of.  Alongside that, Jo Swinson battled to bring in shared parental leave, and the Lib Dems worked in Government to improve childcare provision.  Lynne Featherstone at the Home Office put in places measures to protect women and girls against violence.  Practical, vital measures to secure greater equality.

Now let’s do the same for our own party.  By supporting the motion, we will be doing for our party what we did for the country, ensuring that women have a voice and make a contribution as part of our parliamentary team. I will be supporting the motion next Sunday. Please give it your support too.

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