Bias against women for MPs, council leader alleges
11:02am Wednesday 12th August 2009 in News By Oliver Evans
Councillor Lesley Clarke
A COUNCIL leader has ruled out running for Parliament – because she thinks her gender will count against her.
Wycombe District Council leader Lesley Clarke is not competing for the Conservative nomination after Paul Goodman MP announced he is standing down.
She said: “I have considered it and I am not. I think I am too old and also not a man.”
She added: “I think it is very much a man’s world and I don’t think women have much chance.”
Wycombe Conservatives dismissed the allegations – but her views are likely to re-ignite debate about women in politics.
Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman hit headlines this month when she said a woman must fill one of the party’s two top posts.
Cllr Clarke, chairman of the national Women’s Local Government Society, said: “It has to be the right person for the job.
“I would like to really know it will be a fair decision and not that is has to be an all-women list or 50/50.”
Asked if gender mattered to Wycombe Conservative Association, she said: “There hasn’t been a woman yet has there?”
In fact, a woman, Labour MP Lady Terrington, held the seat from 1923 to 1924.
Association chairman Bob Woollard, himself going for the seat, said: “It will go to the best person for the job, it has nothing to do with gender.”
Mr Woollard, who cannot take part in the selection process, said the party backed the first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.
“She was a superb leader and she really pulled this country back from an economic malaise,” he said.
Deputy council leader Tony Green pointed to a woman being selected to fight the Tory seat in Totnes, Devon and the election of Chloe Smith in Norwich North.
Cllr Green, who is considering whether to stand, said: “I certainly wouldn’t say it’s a man’s world. Women are an important part of Parliamentary life and political life generally.”
And Councillor Jean Teesdale, who sits on Cllr Clarke’s cabinet, said: “I think that David Cameron would want a few more females in Parliament.
“I think a female would stand a very good chance.”
Cllr Teesdale said she was considering whether to stand.
But former Liberal Democrat mayor Frances Alexander said: “In the Conservative party, perhaps you wouldn’t have much chance.
“There is a barrier of men vs women in politics. I have felt it in my own party at times.”
The seat will be advertised within the party on August 21. Hopefuls need to be on the party’s national list of approved candidates, recently opened by David Cameron.
The party will discuss next month how to decide the final candidate, which could include a primary-style election, said constituency agent Susan Hynard.
Wycombe District Council member Darren Hayday said he will apply as a candidate.
