The Chairman of Orpington Conservatives is facing criticism after writing in an email to colleagues that the Prime Minister was “stupid” for collecting information on gender pay gap figures.

Councillor Tony Owen criticised Theresa May in a private email with fellow members of the Conservative Party, which was leaked to the press.

Responding to Mrs May’s initiative for employers to publish gender pay gap figures, Mr Owen wrote in his email: “This document is valueless and driven by meaningless dogma.

“How can Theresa May be so stupid wasting money in this way?”

Mr Owen also argued Ryanair’s gender pay gap figures represented more men than women being pilots, rather than a gender inequality issue.

He wrote: “I notice Ryanair has one of the biggest gaps. That tells us more about the gender divide of pilots than pay.”

Caroline MacVay, the first ever Bromley candidate for the Women’s Equality Party, said Cllr Owen had “spectacularly missed the point”.

Speaking to News Shopper, she added: “By dismissing the pay gap as ‘meaningless dogma’, he illustrated how little he understands the economic inequality women face.

“The company that he used, Ryanair, itself acknowledges that its 71.8 per cent pay gap is a problem. They understand that they have to employ more female pilots and enable the aspirations of young girls and women who want to fly.

“A century ago, politicians who lacked vision, like Tony Owen does now, would have been equally dismissive of the notion that we would ever have a female Prime Minister.

“Change is as challenging now as it ever has been and as inevitable as it always will be. Gender pay gap monitoring is about accelerating that change.”

Mr Owen told News Shopper he regretted the email had been leaked, but stood by his words in it: “I have no regrets about the substance of my remarks," he said.

"Councils in London have all spent several years implementing 'single status'. Men and women are now all paid the same for doing the same job.

“In most cases equal pay was achieved by raising women's pay, rather than striking a mid-point, and cost £000s to implement. Many staff hours were spent in negotiation.

“Being asked to spend valuable time and scarce resources producing 'gender pay gap' figures that show a pay gap when none exists is clearly stupid.

“It must also be disconcerting for staff. If the aim of the analysis is to demonstrate that there is inequality of the sexes in senior positions then supplying an organisation chart would be simpler, cheaper and there would be no figures to mislead.”

He added that he was disappointed the email was leaked and said he now knows “not to trust the Tory group with confidential information”.

Mr Owen said the leaking of information was “neither good for democracy nor decision making”.

News Shopper had not heard back from its requests to Conservative Women’s Organisation or the Conservative Party headquarters at the time of publishing.