Theresa May wants more women. Specifically, she wants 50 of them to fight the Tories' most winnable seats at the next election. This may not sound particularly radical - and by the standards of the Labour party, which has already embraced all-female shortlists and the Emily's List initiative, it isn't. None the less, the shadow secretary's call for half of the Tories' top targets to be contested by women will dismay many in the party - and not just male would-be candidates, but also those who oppose positive action on principle.
As many of them admitted at a Fawcett Society fringe event last year, Tory ladies of a certain age tend to pick men to represent them in the Commons. Often this is because they fear women with families will not be able to devote all their resources to winning the seat. Sometimes female candidates lack the time for the schmoozing that wins over local party members. And there is strong grassroots resistance to all-female shortlists - not just because members feel Conservative Central Office is telling them what to do, but because Tories tend to believe that the talented should be able to rise to the top without special favours.
But May will tell senior businesswomen today there was "nothing patronising" about installing 50 women. "For those who say we would risk diluting the quality of our candidates and MPs, what planet are you on?" she says. "If we cannot find 50 grade-A, top-class women who want to offer themselves to the British people as Conservative candidates at the next election then we should probably all give up now."
She also attacked the modernising credentials of some of the leadership candidates. "So long as 'modernising' remains nothing more than being 'less strident in tone', 'more caring' or 'nicer, younger, and gayer than the Tories of the 1980s', then the Conservative party will remain dead in the political water." Values appealed to female voters, she said, and ideology did not: "We have now elevated certain policies to the status of ideology."
Jenny Westaway of the Fawcett Society backed May's comments today, telling Guardian Unlimited that all-female shortlists were "proven internationally to be the only way to get more women into parliament. ... She is quite right that more female candidates will make the party more electable and she is quite right to demand clear and enforceable targets."
This wasn't a bid for the leadership: May knows the party is not willing to elect another female leader. But it will be interesting to see whether any of the male hopefuls pick up her challenge.
