Setting Quotas for Female Election Candidates ‘Demeaning’: UK Minister

Michelle Donelan, UK Minister for Higher and Further Education, addresses delegates during the Conservative Party Spring Conference, in Blackpool, northwest England, on March 18, 2022. Paul Ellis /AFP via Getty Images

A female British minister has rejected calls for the Conservative Party to have an all-women shortlist for an upcoming by-election, calling such moves “demeaning.”

A by-election will be held to replace Neil Parish, the Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton, who resigned on April 30 after admitting to watching pornography on his mobile phone in the House of Commons.