A SCOTS MP who poached a candidacy earmarked for a woman has been criticised after saying his party’s doesn’t do enough for its female members.
LibDem Jamie Stone, who won Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross from the SNP in June, made the remark in an online TV series about newly elected MPs.
He also suggested empowering women was a “slightly boring” issue.
Asked to identify the issue his party was most divided on, Mr Stone told the Core Politics ‘Meet The MPs’ show: “We’ve got some work to do, I think, about empowering women.
“That’s a slightly boring answer, but we need to have more females in the House of Commons, and that’s something I’d like to try and help sort out.
“Not everyone agrees with me on that, but I know where I’m coming from.”
However the Gordonstoun-educated MP was himself at the centre of a row about elbowing aside women when he was allowed to stand for the LibDem candidacy in Caithness in May.
The seat was one of five the Scottish LibDems previously said would have an all-women shortlist to improve the party’s gender balance.
In February 2016, the party’s conference passed a motion stating the candidates for the party’s five most winnable vacant seats in the 2020 general election would go to women.
The party said: “This represents a big shift and will open up opportunities for new women candidates”.
When Theresa May called the June election, Scottish leader Willie Rennie confirmed the policy still stood.
However Mr Stone, 63, who has been the area’s MSP from 1999 to 2011 and was a Highland councillor was allowed to go forward.
The LibDem leadership ditched the all-women shortlist because it reckoned - correctly - that Mr Stone had the local profile to win.
Highlands SNP MSP Maree Todd said: “The Lib Dems have a sorry track record in getting more women into frontline politics. At Holyrood they’ve got an all-male group and are going absolutely nowhere on female representation.
“That’s because they’re fundamentally against advancing women’s issues, as they proved in coalition with the Tories - forcing through austerity that disproportionately impacted women.
“Jamie Stone is right we need more women in politics - but neither him nor his party offer a solution.”
In a Q&A for the YouTube show, Mr Stone also mistakenly said he wanted tuition fees to go up rather than down before hastily correcting himself; said he wanted to keep appearing in his local panto, ideally as a villain; and said the funniest moment of his election campaign was being urinated on by a voter’s ferret named Tiddles.
He also said if someone stuck a pin in Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson he would “make a big farting noise and fly out the window".
Series Producer Rob Double, said: “The series hopes to show the public a human and personable side to their MPs while giving further insight into their politics and ambitions."
A LibDem spokesman said: “Jamie is absolutely clear on the need for a more diverse party and parliament, and the video makes clear his support for the steps needed.
“We were successful [in selecting female candidates] for four of the five seats in June and, considering the snap election was three years early, that is a significant achievement.”
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