Tall MPs to Make up Third of Tory Ministers
Monday, 10 March 2008
David Cameron has defended his pledge to give a third of ministerial jobs in a future Tory government to tall MPs, although he admitted that imposing 'all-tall' shortlists would a 'step too far'.
It was a fact of modern Britain, he said, that average height had increased, and that too many Tory MPs were unrepresentative of this trend in contemporary British society.
Mr Cameron said the party was 'pushing very hard' to get more tall candidates from all walks of life to stand as Tory candidates in seats, especially marginals, it needs to win to form a government.
He said that 'there are not enough good tall candidates coming forward, not enough getting through to the later stages of selection and then not enough getting selected.
Stop Press: A new Conservative Task Force - 'Where Have All The Fatties Gone?' - has been established under the chairmanship of Ken Clarke to examine how representative the Tory party is of modern, obese Britain.
It was a fact of modern Britain, he said, that average height had increased, and that too many Tory MPs were unrepresentative of this trend in contemporary British society.
Mr Cameron said the party was 'pushing very hard' to get more tall candidates from all walks of life to stand as Tory candidates in seats, especially marginals, it needs to win to form a government.
He said that 'there are not enough good tall candidates coming forward, not enough getting through to the later stages of selection and then not enough getting selected.
With organisations like 'Lofty to Win', we have encouraged more tall candidates to put themselves forward...We've gone out to find tall people in various walks of life who would make good politicians and try to encourage them to get on to the list and stand for Parliament...If we exclude tall people, which the Conservative Party has for too long, you exclude an extremely talented part of the population.Mr Cameron denied that this policy represented an attack on the remnants of the old-guard 'nasty' party. 'Of course, there will always be room in the modern Conservative Party for short, dumpy and un-photogenic candidates - for people like Oliver Letwin and Michael Gove – but they can't be allowed to dominate a modern, compassionate Conservative Party that seeks to be representative of modern Britain'.
Stop Press: A new Conservative Task Force - 'Where Have All The Fatties Gone?' - has been established under the chairmanship of Ken Clarke to examine how representative the Tory party is of modern, obese Britain.