More women MPs may be the only way to reduce sexism in parliament | Politics News

There are some political issues that seem almost tidal in nature.

Subjects that routinely come crashing into Westminster, covering all in their path before receding and leaving everything much the same.

The debate around sexism in parliament is a case in point.

It’s an issue that prompts ample amounts of outrage but tends to lead to tiny quantities of tangible change.

For evidence of this, look no further than the noticeably detail-free Sunday morning interviews given by the Tories and Labour.

Speaking for the government, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said closing bars in parliament was “overly puritanical”, that he wasn’t in favour of all-women election shortlists and didn’t have an opinion on possible changes to how MPs employ staff.

We scarcely heard much more from Labour.

Asked what actually needed to happen, Sir Keir Starmer spoke of “cultural change” and “taking responsibility”.

No one can blame Sky’s Sophy Ridge for asking in a somewhat exasperated tone: “I understand these words, but what specifically needs to change?”

The last time the waves of the sexism debate receded in 2017 we were left with an independent complaints scheme to show for it.

Several politicians are now being investigated under that scheme over alleged sexual misconduct.

We wait to see if these include the anonymous cases reported by the Sunday Times today, such as the senior MP accused of licking the faces of researchers or the minister with a taste for noisy office sex.

But that we’re still talking about examples as colourful as this leads many to conclude that the tinkering with the rules we’ve had so far hasn’t really worked.

So what else is going wrong?

Well, maybe part of the answer is staring us in the face.

Out of five UK party leaders and one cabinet minster interviewed on TV this morning, there was just one woman.

Men still make up 65% of the Commons and while more than half of Labour MPs are female, in the Conservatives it’s just a quarter.

Read more:
Closing parliament’s bars would be ‘excessively puritanical’, minister says
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Put bluntly, maybe it’s less about rules and more about representation.

But a more balanced political system won’t materialise with just warm words and lofty ambitions.

For now anyway, the strategy looks to be little more than waiting for the waves to recede and hoping the damage done is minimal.