'Lack Of Women MPs Is A Real Problem'

Former equalities minister Maria Miller has told Sky News that there is a "real problem" with the lack of women MPs in Parliament.

The Conservative MP for Basingstoke told the Murnaghan programme that Parliament needed to "look at its practices" in order to encourage more women into politics.

And she said she "wouldn't rule out" all-women shortlists if the Tories could not recruit more women.

Her comments came as David Cameron is expected to appoint more women to ministerial posts at a reshuffle this week.

Ms Miller, who was forced to resign earlier this year following an expenses scandal, said: "There is a real problem there.

"We only have 22% of members of Parliament who are female, and at a time when we are seeing young girls come out of university with the best degrees, and choosing to go into areas like law and accountancy in more numbers than their male counterparts, yet in Parliament we are still struggling to attract women either as a first career or even as a second career."

David Cameron's front bench in February was entirely men

She said that women were not taking up the challenge of trying to improve their communities by going into politics.

She was hopeful that a report that is due to be released on Monday, which aims to address the issue, will help, even though Parliament has been "lagging behind".

She admitted that, as someone who had gone to a Comprehensive in Wales and had not gone to Oxford or Cambridge, becoming an MP was something she had not seen herself doing.

It had only been because of family and friends that she had gone into politics, she added.

She also admitted that she had not realised what it would be like in Parliament, but that MPs needed to "look at the working practices we have and culture that we have" so that Westminster did not lag behind.

In February, Ed Miliband pointed out during Prime Minister's Questions that none of the Conservative front bench seats were occupied by women.

Ms Miller tipped Harriett Baldwin, Margot James and Esther McVey for greater future success.

But Labour's Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper warned that voters would view a reshuffle that increased the number of women in Cabinet as a "last minute worry" about votes.

Yvette Cooper accused David Cameron of having 'a blind spot'

The Labour front bencher accused the Prime Minister of having a "real blind spot" over women and said it would be "too little, too late".

She told the Murnaghan programme: "I think if he was serious about having women in his Cabinet, he's had four years to do so.

"There's only three women in the Cabinet of between 20 and 30 people at the moment and I think this is going to look really like a last minute worry about votes because he knows that he's got a real blind spot when it comes to women."

Liberal Democrat Justice Minister Simon Hughes admitted that his party had the fewest number of female MPs out of any of the major parties and admitted that more needed to be done.

Talking about the possibility that Lib Dem leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg might swap Ed Davey for Jo Swinson in the Energy Secretary role, he said: "He's absolutely mindful of making sure that we have more women in government - the fact that we have people like Jo Swinson back from maternity leave firing on all cylinders in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is very welcome in the party."

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