Miliband has been up in Leeds today talking about his favourite subject of late: the Tories’ apparent ‘women problem’. Yet as Hazel Blears announces that she too is standing down, how true is it that the Tories are proportionally losing more women than Labour? A Guido FactCheck investigates.
There were 48 female Tory MPs in 2010.
Lorraine Fulbrook, Jessica Lee and Laura Sandys are not seeking re-election, Louise Mensch stepped down in 2012, and Anne Mcintosh has been deselected.
That means in this parliament female Tory MPs have a casualty rate of 10.4%.
Labour meanwhile had 81 female MPs in 2010.
Nine have said they will be off in 2015: Ann Clwyd, Dawn Primarolo, Tessa Jowell, Glenda Jackson, Joan Ruddock, Anne McGuire, Joan Walley, Meg Munn and Hazel Blears.
That means in this parliament female Labour MPs have a casualty rate of 11.1%.
Filling your front bench with women in a stage-managed attack is all well and good, but the truth is Labour are losing more women than the Tories…
UPDATE: Following some complaints on Twitter about the graph above, Guido is happy to issue the following clarification:
UPDATE II: