Equality Act 2010: Diversity of Political Candidates Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateBaroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway
Main Page: Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway's debates with the Department for Education
(1 month ago)
Lords ChamberThe noble Baroness makes a very important point. Some of that, of course, is the responsibility of political parties themselves, but particularly in areas where she and I have previously shared views and work—such as the abuse and intimidation that impact all elected politicians but disproportionately impact women—there is work that the Government can do, building on work done outside this place on this issue; for example, by the Jo Cox commission. The Government are working with the Electoral Commission to take this forward in terms of practical actions that will help overcome some of these barriers, which, as the noble Baroness says, might put people off coming into democratically elected life, and, in doing that, make us all poorer.
How long does my noble friend the Minister think it will take before we achieve 50:50 representation of men and women in the House of Lords?
My noble friend the Leader assures me that the Front Bench on this side is pretty good. I am afraid it is not within my power, but I see in the other place that considerable progress has been made since 1997, when I was elected, which was equally a big jump in women’s representation. Then, however, it was just over 18% women—it now stands at 40%, which is the sort of progress that we would all like to see.