Carlaw hits back at Dugdale for not nominating a woman to Holyrood body while leader
The Conservative member of Holyrood’s governing body has admitted its all male make-up is “undesirable” – but questioned why Kezia Dugdale failed to ensure female representation when she was Labour leader.
Jackson Carlaw, the Tory deputy leader, was speaking in response to Ms Dugdale’s call for the five men elected to the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (SPCB) to resign to bring in new processes to ensure it becomes more gender balanced.
Ms Dugdale argued that the SPCB should reflect society more accurately as the sexual harassment scandal gripping Westminster and Holyrood
heightened. Mr Carlaw said: “When Kezia was in a position so to do she hadn’t actually nominated a woman to the Corporate Body, which I thought was curious. It is undesirable [for it to be all male].
“The Scottish Conservatives previously nominated Liz Smith and Mary Scanlon in previous parliaments...i think it is unfortunate and it is not by design that it is all male at present.
“There is widespread agreement that there has to be a means for that position to evolve, but I personally don’t think resigning is a sensible idea.”
Gordon Macdonald, the SNP representative on the SPCB, said: “It was up to each political party to put forward who they thought would be the best person. The whole parliament voted on it. It wasn’t like it was an appointment; the whole parliament had to vote on it.”
The SPCB is chaired by Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh. The other members are: David Stewart of Labour, Liam Mcarthur of the Liberal Democrats and Andy Wightman of the Greens. Joe Fitzpatrick, the Scottish Government’s minister for parliamentary business, has suggested the size of SPCB should be increased to allow gender equality. There have also been calls for the allmale parliamentary bureau, which sorts out Holyrood business, to be reformed.
Mr Macintosh wrote to Mr Fitzpatrick yesterday, saying: “There are two key parliamentary bodies with an all-male membership and, in some ways, resolving the issue on the Parliamentary Bureau would be easier and more immediate as membership is entirely within the gift of the parties themselves. Changing membership on the SPCB is of greater complexity as it involves appointments by the whole Parliament and, in any case, any changes to the process similar to those you propose would require rule changes.”
Ms Dugdale said: “You can’t gender balance one position I put women on serious posts all across the party and my record on gender equality is impeccable unlike the Tories. The Tories were the last party in a position to appoint someone and they appointed a man. So people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”