The Liberal Democrats scrapped their planned diversity criteria for candidate selection in European elections following complaints from white male members, BuzzFeed News has learned.



The party had previously told its EU hopefuls that lists of candidates selected to represent the Lib Dems must be representative of society, by ensuring they included women, people from black or minority ethnic backgrounds, LGBT people, and disabled people.

Today, the Liberal Democrats published lists of candidates, and while 46% candidates are women, with gender balance in all regions but one, some regions have no BAME candidates at all, and only one black candidate has been selected in the entire country.

Of the 65 candidates selected in England and Wales, seven are BAME, eight are LGBT+, and five are disabled, BuzzFeed News understands. Candidate lists have not yet been announced in Scotland.

MEPs are elected via a regional list system, whereby political parties put forward names of candidates in rank order, with seats allocated to parties in proportion to their share of the vote.



Detailed instructions were sent out via email to prospective candidates in each region saying what the list of Liberal Democrat candidates for their area should look like.

