In a double page spread in today's Guardian John Harris takes a critical look at the diversity of the next generation of Conservative MPs. He focuses on the number of Tory MPs that are likely to have been privately-educated but that proportion (although quite high) is actually on a downward trend.
We know a lot more of tomorrow's Tory MPs are likely to be women, quite a few more will be from ethnic minority backgrounds and a lot will be gay... but is that real diversity? Would we also be better off with more candidates with experience of working for charities or older candidates who gave up a lot of income-generating years to look after children? Philip Lee (now selected for Bracknell) made the case for more mathematicians and scientists. And what about the fact that more and more candidates appear to have spent so long working within the 'Westminster village'?
ConHome ran an unsuccessful campaign to encourage more help for low income candidates to become Tory MPs after we found that the cost of becoming a candidate (over £40,000 at the last election) might discourage people with, for example, backgrounds in lower-paid work or who have been home-makers.
When I was talking to a member of the shadow cabinet recently and was being criticised for not supporting All Women Shortlists I replied that gender diversity wasn't the only form of diversity. They agreed but they had no idea (zero) about the proportion of Tory candidates with backgrounds, for example, in the public sector or who have run large companies (not a bad preparation for running a Whitehall department). The focus on diversity is too narrow, too superficial. The media is partly to blame for this. Newspapers are obsessed with the number of women and ethnic minority candidates but don't encourage the party to consider other measures.
Does diversity matter? It can be over-stated. David Cameron, for example, is a privately-educated, wealthy southern man but has succeeded in building a much more pro-poor, female-friendly party that is winning big in the north of England. On balance, however, I think a parliamentary party shouldn't be dominated by people who have worked in politics, the law, financial services, the military and the media. It would also be good to see more people who have run manufacturing companies, more social entrepreneurs, more people from outside of London.
This does not mean that we should have quotas or targets for recruiting 'northern manufacturers' etc but we should look beyond gender and ethnicity in discussion of diversity.
Tim Montgomerie
