Women: Disappointment over Cabinet gender gap

Liberal Democrat Lynne Featherstone said she had told Prime Minister David Cameron "we must do better" after being appointed to the role of junior Minister under Theresa May at the Home Office.

She said the Lib Dem and Tory teams which hammered out the coalition deal were "male and pale" because not enough women had progressed through the ranks in Parliament.

She said: "I am very disappointed."

She added: "I think that is an issue. But if I look at the five Liberal Democrats, including Nick Clegg, who have gone into the Cabinet, they are, and this is one of the difficulties, extremely talented, extremely experienced and the heavy hitters in the Liberal Democrats.

"So the issue is how do you get women through the ranks of Parliament to those positions where they are then in a position to be in the Cabinet?"

The Lib Dems' poor showing at the General Election meant many women who had hoped to win seats failed to do so.

Ms Featherstone said: "There are plenty of able and talented women who do want it, who are coming through the ranks slowly now. The Conservatives have made great improvements in the number of women coming through in the Parliament, sadly the Liberal Democrats have not.

"We did actually have able women in place; winnable seats were covered by 40 per cent women but unfortunately we didn't have the greatest of nights and we didn't win those seats.

"So I think women are willing to come forward, that's not the issue."

The lack of women in top ministerial jobs in the coalition Government has attracted criticism from pressure groups and academics.

A letter in The Times yesterday, with signatories including Dr Rainbow Murray of the Political Studies Association and Fawcett Society chief executive Ceri Goddard, described the situation as a "huge step backwards" and called on Mr Cameron to take action to ensure women were not excluded from power.

"The 'new politics' and 'Big Society' warmly advocated by our new Government must not come with a 'men only' stamp," they wrote.