Call for all-female shortlists

HOLYROOD should impose statutory all-women shortlists like the Irish Republic, a report on last year’s election has argued.

The Electoral Reform Society report said the change was needed after it found that “gender is perhaps the most obvious deficit” in ensuring that Holyrood is a parliament truly representative of Scots.

Only 45 women MSPs (34.9 per cent) were elected to the fifth Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Conservatives were the only party at Holyrood not to see improvements in their share of women candidates from 2011, while the Scottish Liberal Democrats had no female MSPs.