Equality and Diversity (Reform) Bill

Alan Campbell Excerpts

Friday 21st October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Alan Campbell (Tynemouth) (Lab)]

I am listening carefully to the hon. Gentleman. Given the changes that his leader has instituted in his party, is he saying that there are Members on the Conservative Benches—women or members of ethnic minorities—who have not got here purely on merit?

[Mr Nuttall]

I am not saying that at all. There is a risk that others might regard the winner from an all-women shortlist as not having succeeded against the whole field of candidates, which is self-evidently true.

[Mr Campbell]

Is that the hon. Gentleman’s view? If so, would he care to name any of them?

[Mr Nuttall]

As far as I am concerned, all Members on the Government side of the House have got here on merit, but there are plenty of Members who succeeded in their applications as a direct result of the all-women shortlists that the Labour party introduced.

[Mr Campbell]

Is the hon. Gentleman saying that the changes instituted by his leader to try to make his party more representative have been a waste of time?

[Mr Nuttall]

I believe that all selections should be open to all candidates, regardless of their race, sexual gender or any other merits, that political parties, wherever they are in the country, should be free to choose who they want on merit and that the 2002 Act should be repealed, which the Bill seeks to do. The key objective of that Act was to enable a political party, if it so wished, to adopt measures to regulate the selection of candidates, but I do not believe that that is the right way forward. According to the explanatory notes that accompanied the Act, in the 1996 case of Jepson v. the Labour party an employment tribunal held that section 13 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 covered the selection of candidates by political parties, which therefore constrained their ability to take positive action to increase the number of women elected to this House.