Critically examine the extent to which political parties aim to ensure that the candidates they put forward are representative of the wider UK population. (15 marks) Written by Annabel Burt [January 2011] Introduction: In trying to examine whether political parties aim to ensure that the candidates put forward are representative of the UK population, the Labour Party has been taken as a main example. When considering whether the Labour party has been successful it is of course vital to look at outside influences; such as the Speakers Conference and the Equality and Human Rights Commission as they play an important role in seeing an improvement of equality of candidates. As the parties individually do not tend to ensure that there is an improvement of the representation of both women and ethnic minorities it instead is the pressure and policies of Parliament that influence this. The labour party: In 2006 Tony Blair introduced his ‘Respect Action Plan’ in which he projected his new initiative of everyone belonging within society, being equally represented and the right of which we have to have our opinions heard amongst politics:
‘ More grandly, it is the answer to the most fundamental question of all in politics which is: how do we live together? ...Rights have to be paired with responsibilities. Of course the overwhelming majority of people understand this intuitively and have no trouble living side by side with their neighbours….Anti-­‐social behaviour is not evidence of a flawed moral sensibility in the British people. On the contrary, the need to act comes from the pressing moral urgency of the people (Blair, 2006a).’1 Analysing the words of Tony Blair we can draw the assumption that the labour party are aware that with responsibility comes rights. Part of those rights is freedom of speech of which they aim to ensure that individual opinions are projected and so those who lead Government are reflective of the population that their decisions will affect. Submission by the Labour Party: It is said that ‘The Labour Party welcomes moves to look at the under-­‐representation of diverse groups in the House of Commons’2 and that they work hard to reflect the communities that they seek to represent and this aim is shown through Labour having the best record of any UK political party in terms of women and ethnic minority representation. Labour express that ‘equality is a core value and belief’ and have ‘a proud record of being an inclusive, open and accessible political party. The Labour party delivers that whist they need to push further they have still been successful in its work towards equal representation of men and women both in public office and in public bodies. In Parliament Labour has three times as many ethnic minority MP’s as the other parties put together. However still even the Labour party who is more representative than other parties is still under representative of the British society but still it promotes to change this ‘We will continue to tackle under-­‐representation of women and Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, and to encourage diversity at all levels. The Labour government has stated its intention of using the new Equality Bill to introduce specific provisions to allow for positive action measures to redress under representation and to seek to ensure increased BAME representation in all areas of politics and public life, and specifically in the Westminster and European Parliaments, other assemblies and public bodies’.3 Underrepresentation: The only party to adopt all women shortlists was the Labour Party and faced a series of legal challenges over it. Due to such a imbalance of female candidates within political parties the Speaker’s conference suggests that compulsion might indeed be necessary in order to increase 1 http://www.uppress.co.uk/socialpolicy_pdf/Johns.pdf 2 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/spconf/167/167we57.htm 3 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/spconf/167/167we57.htm diversity and a true reflection of the UK population within society. As a result of political parties not enforcing their own policies and measures to insure that the candidates in which they put forward are representative of the ‘true’ UK population; the speaker’s conference also called for the introduction of candidate lists which will exclude white people although these would not be mandatory and so still would be to the individual parties own discretion. The conference chaired by John Bercow and commissioned by Gordon Brown and was to investigate the underrepresentation of women, ethnic minorities and disabled within the House of Commons. The report signified ‘If the political parties fail to make significant progress on women's representation at the 2010 general election, Parliament should give serious consideration to the introduction of prescriptive quotas, ensuring that all political parties adopt some form of equality guarantee in time for the following general election.’4 Statement issued to the Speakers Conference: In January 2009 a statement was issued to the Speakers Conference on the representation of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people in the House of Commons. Part of the summary being that ‘The convening of the Speaker’s Conference is based on the premise that various groups of people should be represented in the House of Commons by a number of MPs in proportion to those groups’ presence in the UK population.’. Therefore whilst attending the Speakers Conference would have been candidates of political parties it is adamant that they are not pulling out all stops to ensure equal representation. The summary later went on to say that ‘We do not consider that the present “disconnection” between many of the electorate and Parliament is attributable to particular groups being insufficiently represented. Rather, we believe it is attributable to what is widely perceived as a lack of integrity of Government and of politicians as a group, and to loss of confidence in the Civil Service.’ Therefore whilst it has been said that is it the electoral process and lack amongst parliament that are the reason of this others believe the integrity between Government and politicians is the reason. Ethnic minorities amongst political party candidates: Within the UK population ethnic minorities make up about 8% however generally their representation amongst parliament and government is much less than this. However this is promoted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Political Party’s must aim to ensure that they avoid unlawful discrimination in how they operate and the activities in which they participate. This law applies to all political parties at a national, regional, constituency and local level and also to people that are working for them or those making decisions about the party’s participation and membership. Conclusion: Altogether the conclusion can certainly be drawn that individual parties do not ensure that representation of their candidates is equal to the UK population, instead it is the influence of other bodies that bring about improvements and change. Through research it can be observed that Labour party sets aims that are achievable and is aware that whilst they wish for equality of representation this takes time and therefore they are working towards this. The influence of the Equality and Human Rights commission play a role as political parties must ensure they avoid discrimination as well as the Speakers Conference in which made the points clearer. Bibiliogaphy: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snsg-­‐01156.pdf http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/spconf/167/167we57.htm http://www.uppress.co.uk/socialpolicy_pdf/Johns.pdf 4 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6960915/Political-­‐parties-­‐must-­‐select-­‐female-­‐
candidates-­‐or-­‐face-­‐all-­‐women-­‐shortlists.html http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/pnorris/Acrobat/stm103%20articles/Karen%20Bird%20amidpape
r.pdf http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snsg-­‐01156.pdf http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6960915/Political-­‐parties-­‐must-­‐select-­‐
female-­‐candidates-­‐or-­‐face-­‐all-­‐women-­‐shortlists.html http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/advice-­‐and-­‐guidance/guidance-­‐for-­‐service-­‐
users/parliaments-­‐politicians-­‐and-­‐political-­‐parties/how-­‐equality-­‐law-­‐applies-­‐to-­‐political-­‐parties/ http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/UKgovernment/Politicalpartiesandel
ections/DG_073226