Being “brown and a women” disadvantaged candidate in hustings, says Tory

If we were in any doubt (and let’s face it, we weren’t), yesterday there was more evidence that the Tories have got a diversity problem.

Tory councillor and chair of Bexhill and Battle Conservative constituency association, John Barnes, said Suella Fernandes, who had stood to be the Tory MP in the area, gave a“wowzer performance on the night” but that “the double whammy of being brown and a woman probably handicaps her still.” What he meant by this is that Fernandes, who came third in the hustings, was disadvantaged in the hustings because she is of Mauritian and Kenyan decent.

Lucy Powell MP, Vice Chair of the General Election Campaign expressed her outrage at this incident, explaining:

“This shocking episode reveals how empty David Cameron’s claims to have changed the Tory Party are.

“When a Tory association says being “brown and a woman” is a “handicap” in a selection, it reveals a party completely at odds with modern Britain. Once again we see that David Cameron’s Tories are completely out of touch.”

Indeed, looking at the stats the Tories are doing badly. 77% of Conservative candidate in the battleground seats at the next election are male. And since they do not implement All-Women Shortlists, the Tories have selected men in 65% of seats where  the current MP  standing down.

But it’s also worth noting that on issues of ethnicity and race – Labour aren’t doing that much better than the Tories. Research from the Constitution Unit shows that of candidates for 2015 – of the 100 candidates who identify as being from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds (BME) –  29 are Tory and 43 are Labour.

So while these comments coming from the Tory camp are shocking, and should be examined, Labour too have some work to do.