Political parties should be forced by law to field female candidates in at least 45% of constituencies if they fail to significantly boost the number of women in parliament by 2020, the women and equalities select committee has said.

The committee chair and former Conservative culture secretary and minister for women, Maria Miller, said Britain had slipped to a “shockingly low” 48th in the world league table for female representation from 25th in 1999.



As well as urging Theresa May to consider legislation for political parties including financial penalties for those that fall short, her group called on the prime minister to set a domestic target – also of 45% – for the proportion of female MPs actually elected to Westminster by 2030.

The demands for urgent action come as party leaders – Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn, Tim Farron and Nicola Sturgeon – receive written warnings that the government’s plan to redraw constituency boundaries will not just stall but reverse progress for women in politics.



The letter from the chief executive of the Fawcett Society, Sam Smethers, reveals an analysis suggesting the policy will have a disproportionate impact on female politicians, who are more likely to represent marginal seats.

The figures suggest pushing ahead with the reform could result in 22 fewer women in parliament, pushing the overall proportion down from 30% to 29%.

The select committee report said the lack of women in the House of Commons already represented a “serious democratic deficit”, and said the murder of Jo Cox and threats and abuse aimed at other female MPs “are not neutral acts” for those considering a career in politics.

“It has been almost 100 years since the first woman MP was elected but it is a shocking reality that there have only ever been as many women MPs as there are men sitting in the House of Commons today,” it said.

The group heard from Corbyn, Farron, the SNP’s Westminster leader, Angus Robertson, and Tory chair, Patrick McLoughlin, who all agreed the Commons would benefit from gender equality and put forward plans to address the issue.

“But we saw little to justify their confidence that these will be sufficient,” said Miller. “We need concrete action plans. We need party leadership to provide clear and strong direction in working with local parties to deliver more women candidates. We need to see more women candidates in winnable seats. Above all, parties need to be transparent and accountable in their progress – or lack of it.”

Despite clear scepticism about whether parties can make progress, the committee suggested that political parties should initially be allowed to try to meet the challenge voluntarily through published plans. However, it warned that significantly less than 50% of the parliamentary candidates fielded in 2015 were female and said that while “parties express confidence in their own internal mechanisms for improving the situation” failure to act must be challenged.

“The government should be prepared to legislate to achieve parity among candidates, including financial penalties for under-performance.”

Miller added: “We must ensure that previous positive trends do not stagnate or reverse. There is no room for complacency.”



A Labour committee member, Jess Phillips, argued that her party had done the “heavy lifting” when it came to women in parliament, including through the widespread use of all-female shortlists. The Conservatives have rejected a similar move, with critics complaining that it is not meritocratic.

Phillips said she was pleased with the report, but argued that progress across political parties needed not just “warm words” but action. The fact that Labour had done most to improve representation could be bad news for an election, she admitted, given how badly her party was faring in the opinion polls.

“If there was an election tomorrow and polls are to be believed we would go backwards on women’s representation in parliament,” she said.

Smethers said the report showed progress on the number of women in parliament was not inevitable and could even go backwards without serious action.

“As we approach the centenary of the first votes for women and the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons, we face the prospect of women’s representation going backwards from what is already a low base of just 30%. That is a terrible indictment on the state of our politics.”

She said that in the face of the boundary review and the possibility of heavy Labour losses all political parties needed “to raise their game”.

Frances Scott, founded of the 50:50 parliament campaign said her group would still push for total equality in numbers, and said it was nonsense when people argued that women didn’t want the power.

“To achieve equality only 130 more women are needed in the Commons from a population of 32 million this should not be a big ask … There are some great women out there, so let’s start asking them to stand, our country needs them, it is good to see that that parliament is at last trying to make them more welcome.”

A Tory party spokesman said: “The Conservative party made history by electing the first and second female prime ministers in this country, and in the last decade we have quadrupled the number of female members of parliament that sit in the House of Commons.



“We continue to encourage more women to get involved in politics and support them to stand for parliament through the Conservative Women’s Organisation and initiatives such as ‘Women2Win’.



“Our ambition is to have more female Conservative MPs, in both relative and absolute terms, after the next general election. Encouraging more women into parliament plays a crucial role in our mission to build a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.”

