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The Conservatives are locked in a row over plans to boost the number of female Tory MPs today, as they try to diffuse the burgeoning row over sexism and laddish behaviour in Parliament.
Party chairman Oliver Dowden this morning reiterated a commitment from Boris Johnson to ensure half of Conservative candidates for the Commons are women.
It came as the Conservatives found themselves under huge pressure to act in the wake of Neil Parish's Commons' porn shame.
The Tiverton and Honiton MP has said he will quit politics after admitting he was the Conservative seen by disgusted female colleagues watching porn on his phone while sitting on the green benches.
It has give rise to further claims of laddish and debauched behaviour by MPs in Westminster.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Dowden said the Tories need to ensure their candidate list 'reflects the fact that half the population are women'.
Around a quarter of Conservative candidates at the 2019 election were women, but Labour managed to ensure women represented more than half of its candidates.
And earlier this week, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries suggested ensuring 'a majority of women' in Parliament could help tackle Westminster sleaze.
But Business Secretary Kwasi Kwartend appeared to pour cold water on the idea today.
He told Sky News the party had made 'huge progress', not just with female MPs but with ethnic minorities, adding: 'I've never been a fan,
