Enewsletter 67

More Women MPs – but Nowhere Near Enough!

Thursday's General Election has resulted in the election of  142 women MPs – a mere 22% of the total 649.

At the dissolution of parliament in April, there were 126 women MPs - 19.5% of the total. The increase is therefore very small – a net gain of just 16 or 2.5%.

However, when parliament does reconvene it will look different, with significantly more women on the Conservative benches, and fewer on the Labour and Liberal Democrat benches.

The number of Conservative women MPs has risen from 18 to 48 - an increase from 9% to 16%.

The number of Labour women MPs has fallen from 94 to 81 - but the fall in the overall number of Labour MPs means that there is a percentage increase of 4% (from 27% to 31%).

The number of Liberal Democrat women MPs has fallen from 9 to 7 - a decrease from 15% to 12%.

The unusually high number of MPs retiring at this election meant that the loss of Labour women in marginal seats was balanced out by 50% of Labour candidates in seats where the Labour MP was retiring being women. Had this not been the case the number of women in the House of Commons would have declined significantly.

In addition to the women elected for the main three parties, there was one woman elected for the Green Party, one for the SNP, one for Sinn Fein, one for the SDLP, one for the Alliance Party, and one Independent. None of Plaid Cymru's three MPs are women, and none of the DUP's eight.

Over the next few weeks CFWD will be looking at these figures in much more detail, and will be producing a full report on the election. But, in the meantime, it is clear that, despite a record number of women candidates and the relatively high hopes of both parties and women’s organisations, there has been no significant increase in the percentage of women in the UK parliament. We will be calling on the next government – however it is constituted – to take steps to carry out the recommendations of the Speaker’s Conference report as soon as possible, and we will also be raising the issue of women’s representation as part of any discussions on democratic or electoral reform.