Tories 'need more top women'

Pressure to appoint more women to the Conservative Party's top team was growing today.

Just four of the 32-strong shadow Cabinet are female, with three other women in the Lords also being members.

David Cameron has pledged to tackle the under-representation of women but failed to give jobs to rising stars Justine Greening and Maria Miller in his last reshuffle, while Caroline Spelman, who faced controversy over her expenses, was demoted as party chairman to shadow communities secretary.

The big portfolios are all held by men and his closest advisers are all male. One leading female Tory parliamentary candidate told The Times: "The fact that there are not more women in the inner circle inevitably affects policy. It's deeply worrying." However one party insider argued that senior Tory women were still struggling to make their mark at the top level.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Theresa May was described as "mechanical" and shadow security minister Baroness Neville-Jones and shadow community cohesion minister Baroness Warsi were said to have not met the expectations.