On politics and diversity – Cameron’s forgotten legacy?

Beate OeraDiversity & inclusivity, Research, insights & industry news

Conservative party - Tories - diversity

On politics and diversity – Cameron’s forgotten legacy?

July 20, 2022
 / 
Diversity & inclusivity
, 
Research, insights & industry news
It possibly comes as a surprise to many that the Tory party should end up the organisation setting an example on diversity, but that is what is happening. The current diverse leadership shortlist is neither accidental nor organic.
As I write, the Tory leadership contest is in its final phases, and we now know the next prime minister will be either a woman or come from an ethnic minority. This is from an original shortlist of 11, where 4 were women and over half from ethnic minorities. However, what is interesting about this, is that this diversity is neither accidental nor organic.

David Cameron wrote an article for The Times (July 16th - We were all white men — so I did something about diversity), talking about the party he inherited and the reforms he implemented. When he was elected, there were 17 women and two from ethnic minorities amongst the 198 Tory MPs. His first shadow cabinet had more men named David (five) than women (four).

Cameron writes “I ran on a platform of ‘change to win’ and was determined to modernise the party, starting by addressing the appalling lack of diversity of Conservative candidates and MPs. To me, this agenda was never about political correctness; it was about political effectiveness.”

He froze candidate selection and created a system of ‘A-list’ shortlists, where half the candidates, later half the interviews, had to be women, and a large proportion from ethnic backgrounds. Open primaries opened the field to non-party members, and active headhunting added diversity to the fields.

The current diverse shortlist is a direct result of Cameron’s actions; all the 11 leadership candidates were elected after his reforms.

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive future insights & research

It possibly comes as a surprise to many that the Tory party should end up the organisation setting an example on diversity, but that is what is happening. Regardless of the politics and policies involved, Cameron’s reforms are arguably a diversity success story, and one worthy of a bit more attention.

About Fram Search

Established in 2010 by Simon Roderick, a recruiter with 20 years City recruitment experience, Fram Search is a specialist financial services recruitment consultancy. We focus on permanent and interim recruitment in the UK & internationally.

We provide high quality contingent and retained recruitment to boutiques and global brands. We have long established relationships and access to deep talent pools. Fram takes a highly consultative approach, and we have a quality over quantity ethos. We are proud that our contingent fill rate is nearly three the industry average and we augment our retained search methodology with rigorous psychometric testing. Champions of diversity & inclusion, all staff have undertaken unconscious bias training.

Please contact us on 01525 864 372 / [email protected] to learn more.

Share this Post