Women in the UK General Election 2005
The process of choosing candidates to contest the general election on 5th May is now complete. With the information available from the parties’ websites and headquarters, we have compiled figures on the women candidates standing in this election.
Among the major parties in Great Britain there are 453 women and 1529 men standing (Table 1). Women thus comprise 23 per cent of the total candidates in the field, an increase of three per cent over 2001. Labour has done most among the larger parties to select women candidates, putting forward 170 women for the 627 constituencies it is contesting (27 per cent), up from 23 per cent in 2001. The Liberal Democrats are next in line, selecting a total of 143 women (23 per cent, versus 21 per cent in 2001). While the Conservatives trail the two other main parties, with 123 women (20 per cent), this is an improvement over the 15 per cent they managed in 2001.
Of the smaller parties, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru come in with a more modest selection of 13 (22 per cent, the same as in 2001) and four (10, down from 18 per cent) women. The fact that both these parties have so many more women representatives in the devolved assemblies seems to illustrate the more women-friendly nature of the different electoral systems used at that level.
Table 1: Women candidates in Great Britain
Party / Number women / Number men / % womenLabour / 170 / 457 / 27
Conservative / 123 / 507 / 20
Liberal Democrat / 143 / 483 / 23
SNP / .13 / .46 / 22
Plaid Cymru / ..4 / .36 / 10
Total / 453. / 1529.. / 23
Women retiring, standing in safe seats or target seats, and incumbents
Thirteen women MPs are leaving parliament at this election, three more than in 2001. Of the 95 women Labour MPs elected in 2001, ten are standing down, including former Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell and former Education Secretary Estelle Morris. The Conservatives are losing their most senior women MPs, including former Heritage Secretary Virginia Bottomley, Education Secretary Gillian Shepherd, and Dame Marion Roe; while one Liberal Democrat, Jenny Tonge, is not seeking re-election.
Among those seeking re-election, we find that Labour women parliamentarians are most likely to keep their seats. However, Oona King faces a strong challenge from anti-war campaigner George Galloway in the traditionally safe Labour seat of Bethnal Green and Bow, and four Labour women are defending margins of less than 5 per cent. None of the five women Liberal Democrat incumbents were elected by more than five per cent and thus also face tight races. In one of these seats, Brent East, Labour has nominated a woman to reclaim the once-safe seat lost to the Lib Dems in a 2003 by-election shock. According to the BBC three of the Liberal Democrats’ top ten target seats are being contested by women, while Labour and the Conservatives have nominated one woman in each of their top ten targets.
Using the 2001 Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act to exercise positive discrimination in candidate selection, Labour has chosen women defend 31 of the seats being vacated by its MPs, over half of the total. Depending on the size of the national swing against Labour, the party could possibly match their previous record of 101 women MPs in 1997. Conservatives have nominated women in three of their fifteen newly-vacant seats, including Chipping Barnet where MEP Theresa Villiers is standing. The Lib Dems have nominated former London mayoral candidate Susan Kramer to replace Jenny Tonge in Richmond Park.
Table 2: Women incumbents
Party / Women candidates / Incumbents / % incumbentsLabour / 170 / 85. / 50..
Conservative / 123 / 11. / 9
Liberal Democrat / 143 / 5 / 3
SNP / ..13 / 1 / 8
Plaid Cymru / …4 / 0 / 0
Total / 453 / 102… / 23..
Northern Ireland
While 2001 saw a historic breakthrough in Northern Ireland after a twenty-seven year absence of women MPs, this election sees slightly fewer women standing and fewer prospects for new women MPs in Northern Ireland. In addition to Strangford MP Iris Robinson, their only woman candidates in 2001, the DUP has nominated two additional women, but both are in unpromising seats. The Ulster Unionists have nominated just one woman, Lady Hermon in North Down. The SDLP has selected four women candidates (versus six four years ago), while Sinn Féin are once again fielding three, including Michelle Gildernew, the incumbent for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.
Her 53-vote victory in 2001 was one of the closest in the UK, and Iris Robinson is also defending a narrow margin. While Lady Hermon won North Down comfortably in 2001, she now faces competition from the Alliance party for the pro-Agreement vote, and a newly-united anti-Agreement unionist vote since Robert McCartney of the UK Unionists has stood aside for the DUP. Finally, the Alliance Party have four women candidates out of eleven, but unlike 2001 the Women's Coalition is not putting forward any candidates.
Table 3: Women candidates in Northern Ireland
Party / Women candidates / Men candidates / % womenDUP / 3 / 14 / 18
UUP / 1 / 17 / ..5
Sinn Féin / 3 / 13 / 19
SDLP / 4 / 13 / 24
Alliance / 4 / ..7 / 36
Total / 14.. / 61 / 19