‘Theresa effect’ inspires record-breaking surge in Tory women seeking to be MPs

With 30 of the 70 target seats contested by female candidates, unprecedented numbers could win office

THERESA MAY’S “political winner” image has been credited with inspiring a surge in Tory women running for Parliament that could break all records.

Six in 11 safe Tory seats available from retirements have been handed to female candidates, while around 30 of the party’s 70 targets are being contested by women.

Some Tory associations have rejected No 10 and Government aides, instead picking little known female candidates to represent them.

Party figures believe they can make history by getting an unprecedented number of female MPs elected – beating the high mark of 101 Labour women elected in Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide.

The new Tory candidates have been dubbed “May’s Maidens” by some – following “Blair’s Babes” in the Nineties and “Cameron’s Cuties” in 2010.

The “breakthrough moment” expected for the party is a vindication of a campaign launched by Mrs May in 2005 to get more Tory women into Parliament.

Paul Goodman, editor of the Conservative Home website, which has been tracking candidate selections, credited the Prime Minister with driving through the change.

“David Cameron made a lot of noise about getting more women candidates and he succeeded up to a point,” Mr Goodman said. “But what is happening now is classic Theresa May. It is ‘show, don’t tell’ – she is just getting on with it.”

Local Tory associations were told for the first time to give “due regard to a gender balance” when putting together their candidate shortlists.

Mr Goodman said the Prime Minister’s popularity with the Tory grassroots helped explain why so many women are being picked by party members.

“There will at least be a subconscious feeling that if a woman is good enough to run the country they are good enough to represent your seat,” he said.

The female candidates being selected will change the face of the Conservative Party, which was criticised for its “toff” image during the David Cameron and George Osborne era.

While three quarters of Tory candidates running are still expected to be men, the numbers of women contesting winnable seats has notably increased according to campaigners.

Those picked for secure seats often defy the traditional route from political insider to MP and much of the credit is being given to Women2Win, the campaign Mrs May set up with Baroness Anne Jenkin in 2005 to boost the number of Tory MPs. Lady Jenkin said the Tory leader was inspired to push for change because of the situation she found when elected in 1997.

“Theresa took a look when she got in, when she was one of 13 Tory female MPs, and just thought this is not acceptable. We are supposed to be a party of equals,” said Lady Jenkin.

“After all, it was just years after our first woman prime minister had left and yet we were still struggling to get the numbers. I think that made her feel she needed to do something.”

Asked to explain the surge in female Tory selections, she said: “My guess is that local associations have finally seen that they have a woman who’s a winner. Theresa’s popularity must have had some impact on this.”

Iain Dale, the former Tory MP and radio presenter who has written on the subject, said: “The Tory party attitude to selecting women candidates has changed within a very short space of time.

“Within less than 20 years they will have gone from 17 female MPs [in 2005] to close on 100. That is largely down to the efforts of two women – Theresa May and Anne Jenkin.”

‘Local associations have finally seen that they have a woman who’s a winner’