News from Labour Matters

Labour candidates younger but more experienced than Conservatives

The Evening Standard highlights research, from leading political lobbyists Insight Public Affairs, which shows that Cameron’s Conservatives are failing to select women for winnable seats.

They make a much poorer attempt at reporting the same research when it comes to the age of the candidates, claiming that:

“The Conservatives are ahead in the youth stakes, however. Almost a quarter of their candidates are aged between 36 and 40. By contrast, a third of Labour hopefuls, including MPs seeking re-election, are over 61.”

The findings, published in Parliamentary Candidates to Watch, assesses the 138 seats in which sitting MPs are retiring at the next election however. Only one Labour candidate is 61 or over.

In fact, Insight Public Affairs make a point of Labour “skipping a generation”, concluding:

“In the seats analysed, 39% of Labour’s parliamentary candidates are under 35. Conversely, none of the Conservatives’ candidates are below 30. Instead they are opting for candidates in their late 30s: almost half (49%) of the Conservative candidates are between 36-40.”

John Lehal, Managing Director of Insight Public Affairs, said:

“Labour will have a lot more women in safe seats and plenty of 20 somethings, whilst Conservative associations finally seem to be selecting black and Asian candidates in safe seats. More worrying though is the lack of local government experience on the Conservative benches – this could pose a problem if their localism mantra is to be believed.”

Labour List has more about this research.

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