A female British minister has rejected calls for the Conservative Party to have an all-women shortlist for an upcoming by-election, calling such moves “demeaning.”
A by-election will be held to replace Neil Parish, the Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton, who resigned on April 30 after admitting to watching pornography on his mobile phone in the House of Commons.
Some Conservatives—including Caroline Nokes, the chairwoman of the Commons Women and Equalities Committee—have called on the party to ensure its candidate in the by-election is a woman.
Party chairman Oliver Dowden also said at the weekend he wanted the Conservatives to ensure more female MPs were elected so that the party in Parliament “reflects the wider country.”
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