Women in Politics Post UK Election
Female representation in parliament and the cabinet following the 2015 election by Dr Melanie Sully
Female Representation in Politics following the UK Election 2015
Dr Melanie Sully www.go-governance.com
After the parliamentary election in May 2015 a record number of women were elected:
29% of MPs now are women compared with around 23% at the previous election in 2010.
|
Party |
Number |
% |
|
Conservative |
68 |
21 |
|
Labour |
99 |
43 |
|
SNP |
20 |
36 |
|
Lib Dem |
0 |
0 |
|
Green |
1 |
100 |
|
UKIP |
0 |
0 |
Source UK Parliament May 2015
The youngest MP to be elected ever in modern times aged 20 is a female MP from the Scottish Nationalists.
Following the election Cameron as Prime Minister formed a new cabinet.
There are 22 full members of the cabinet and of these seven (32%) are women:
Home Affairs
Leader of the House of Lords
Minister for Education, Women and Equality
International Development
Energy and Climate Change
Northern Ireland
Environment Food and Rural Affairs
In addition there are 66 junior ministers of which 12 or 18% are women.
The Opposition Labour Party has a female provisional leader until new elections for the leadership in Autumn.
The party has also a front bench shadow cabinet made up of 52% women.
The only Green MP is female.