The 2019 general election saw a record number of women elected to parliament and, for the first time, there are more women than men in the Parliamentary Labour Party.
Some 51% of the PLP are now female, with 104 women compared to 98 men.
While this is understandably celebrated as a good thing, it has left the Labour Party in a strange dilemma.
This is because the mechanism Labour used to increase the number of women could now be banned… under equality law.
All-Women shortlists for selecting Labour candidates are only allowed because there was a special exemption made in the Equality Act 2010 in order to correct a historic lack of women in the parliament.
But it’s unclear what the future of All-Women Shortlists is now the PLP is 51% women. So where are we and what happens now? Here’s the issue explained.
What are All-Women Shortlists?
(Image: UIG via Getty Images)
All- Women Shortlists mean exactly that.
As an affirmative action practice intended to increase the proportion of female Members of Parliament only women are allowed to stand in particular safe and marginal constituencies for a particular political party.
How has Labour used them?
They were introduced by the Labour Party in 1993, at it’s annual conference. However, despite initially being used with some success in a range of selections for the 1997 general election, they were eventually ruled illegal following an employment tribunal.
The Labour government then amended the existing legislation with the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002. In doing so, All-Women Shortlists became legal, and led to increases in the number of women Labour MPs from the 2005 general election onwards.
The law originally included a ‘sunset clause’ stating the Act should expire at the end of 2015 – however, the Equality Act 2010 extended the statute so that it will now continue in effect until 2030. The life of the legislation could be extended again by a parliamentary order.
However, Labour may now have difficulties in continuing to use the mechanism anyway; the Equality Act 2010 states that the purpose of a selection arrangement, such as AWS, “is to reduce inequality in the party’s representation in the body concerned”.
One of the examples in the accompanying explanatory document to the Act says: “A political party can have a women-only shortlist of potential candidates to represent a particular constituency in parliament, provided women remain under-represented in the party’s members of parliament.
This suggests it may be deemed unlawful to implement AWS in a party where the majority of MPs are women. Much will be left to whether someone makes a legal challenge.
What is Labour’s current policy?
(Image: Manchester Evening News)
The party uses AWS to replace a woman who is retiring from parliament, and in 50% of all other seats, with the aim of achieving gender parity in parliament.
The Labour Party rulebook states: “The party will take action in all selections to encourage a greater level of representation and participation of groups of people in our society who are currently under-represented in our democratic institutions. In particular, the party will seek to select more candidates who reflect the full diversity of our society in terms of gender, race, sexual orientation and disability, and to increase working class representation.”
In open selections there is still a requirement that when the ‘long list’ of applicants is reduced to a final shortlist, a certain number of women have to be put through.
This means for example that if a selection committee think two men need to go through, then a minimum of one woman will also have to go through.
In 2016, while giving evidence to the Women and Equalities Select Committee, Jeremy Corbyn committed to achieving 50% women’s representation in the PLP by 2020.
The December result means that he achieved that aim.
Have they worked?
(Image: Daily Mirror)
Yes. Since the famous, and somewhat patronising, ‘Blair’s Babes’ picture in 1997, the number of Labour female MPs has continued to rise.
Labour now has 104 female MPs compared to 99 male MPs.
In 2001, when all-women shortlists were not used, Labour went backwards on women’s representation.
It has also put pressure on other political parties to take affirmative action.
The number of women in the Conservative Party jumped significantly when David Cameron made the case for greater gender equality.
This has mainly come from increasing the percentage of women on their approved candidates’ list and through programmes such as Women to Win – of which Theresa May was a big supporter. They have resisted AWS because of opposition from members.
The Lib Dem membership consistently kicked back against AWS but finally the party realised, after the 2015 election left them with eight white male MPs, that they needed to take action. So they introduced AWS when selecting candidates who are replacing sitting MPs and in their stronger performing regions.
The most recent election saw a record number of women MPs entering parliament, at 34%. Of course this still does not reflect the 51% of women that make up the British population.
There are stark differences across the party divide: just a quarter of Conservative party MPs are women.
Of the main parties the Liberal Democrats will have the highest proportion of female MPs at 64% – though there are only seven – while just a third of newly declared SNP parliamentarians are women.
How has the number of women in the Parliamentary Labour Party increased over time:
| CONSERVATIVES | LABOUR | LIBERAL DEMOCRATS | OTHER | TOTAL | % MPs | |
| 1997 | 13 | 101 | 3 | 3 | 120 | 18% |
| 2001 | 14 | 95 | 5 | 4 | 118 | 18% |
| 2005 | 17 | 98 | 10 | 3 | 128 | 22% |
| 2010 | 49 | 81 | 7 | 6 | 143 | 22% |
| 2015 | 68 | 99 | 0 | 24 | 191 | 29% |
| 2017 | 67 | 119 | 4 | 18 | 208 | 32% |
| 2019 | 87 | 104 | 7 | 22 | 220 | 34% |
Are they controversial?
Yes. A lot of Labour Party activists are privately critical – although it is considered politically toxic to express those concerns publicly.
There is also concern that decisions about which seats have AWS candidates can be manipulated to get party loyalists from London into safe, often working-class, seat.
Some local Labour Party organisations have complained because they feel AWS were imposed from above, stopping them from selecting a good local male candidate.
On the other hand last summer the General Secretary of Unison Dave Prentice raised concerns alleging that the leadership was covertly using AWS as “bargaining chips”, stitching up selections for favoured candidates.
What happens now?
In all probability the party will want to continue using the mechanism, if it can, as there is broad consensus that the issues behind the lack of female representation have not gone away.
It would probably take a court case to test whether the Equality Act, as it is currently worded, allows for the system to still be used. In all likelihood, AWS might only be allowed if the total number of women MPs drops below 50% again.
Shadow Women and Equalities Minister Dawn Butler told the Mirror she not only wanted to keep the system but that it should be extended to Metro Mayors and Police and Crime Commissioners.
She understands why AWS might be deemed redundant but says that “in reality what we often find is that once you take your foot off the pedal things start to roll backwards.
“And we can’t afford the things to roll backwards. I do think we need to apply for the extension, but I also think the extension needs to extend to Police and Crime Commissioners, Metro Mayors so we need to get women into those positions.”
In reality this is unlikely to happen with the Conservatives in power.
Equally opening up the Equality Act again could prove opening a can of worms by leaving other elements of the Act vulnerable to challenge.
What do the leadership candidates think?
All three of the leadership candidates have backed keeping the scheme.
Rebecca Long-Bailey, who won her Salford and Eccles seat on an AWS, told the Mirror she wanted to keep the measure in place.
While Lisa Nandy, who was also selected under AWS, says that the party should keep them because without them she fears things could slide backwards.
Frontrunner Keir Starmer also wants Labour to keep AWS but he also wants the legislation changed so they can have all-BAME shortlists.
Under his proposal these changes would be accompanied by new bursaries for candidates from underrepresented backgrounds and new “Labour Party College” to equip them with a political education and training to develop campaigning and leadership skills.
What else does the party do to help women get elected?
(Image: Huddersfield Daily Examiner)
There are, of course, other ways in which the Labour Party promotes female candidates. Many benefit from informal mentoring but there are also more organised networking structures.
Women’s conference – which has become a stand-alone event – is an important way for women within the party to network.
The Labour Women’s Network helps with training, development and support for women wanting to go into public life.
The LWN led a I ❤AWS campaign last year calling for the programme to be protected and extended.
They put a motion to women’s conference in 2019 which called for “a change in the law to ensure that parties can use positive action positive action for as long as needed to in order to achieve sustainable parity of women in Parliament”.
The LWN also launched Jo Cox Women in Leadership programme which also helps women to progress in the party has also had success helping Preet Gill, Rosie Duffield and others get elected.
