The Labour party have taken the lead from the feminist Fawcett Society's recent statement and used the selection of local candidates such as Jeremy Lefroy in Stafford to attack the Conservative Party at large for not being "serious about increasing the proportion of women elected to Parliament."
The Conservative Women's Organisation, Women 2 Win, the Vice-Chairman for Women, the Shadow Minister for Women & Equality and the Women's Policy Forum (set up at the start of the year) apparently don't count for anything.
The attacks focus on the percentage of men selected who weren't on the A list which is high but account for just over a sixth of all candidates selected. By their criticism of the process, the Fawcett Society are presumably advocating centrally chosen candidates to be forcibly parachuted into seats, in true New Labour style.
Just 9% of current Conservative MPs are female, but over 30% of candidates selected in winnable seats so far are female - it's both unfair and misleading to gloss over this marked improvement.
Deputy Editor