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Baroness Warsi issues appeal to keep her job as Conservative Party chairman during forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle

 

Gavin Cordon
Saturday 01 September 2012 09:39 BST
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Tory Party chairman Baroness Warsi has issued an appeal to David Cameron to keep her in her post when he carries out his forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle.

Lady Warsi has been criticised for her performance in the key party role by some Tories who say the job should be done by an MP sitting in the House of Commons.

But in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the first female Muslim Cabinet minister urged Mr Cameron let her carry on so that she could help the party attract a new generation of women, working class and ethnic minority voters.

Speaking in Tampa Bay, Florida, where she has been attending the Republican Party convention, she said: "If I genuinely had a choice, I would like to stay doing what I'm doing.

"If you look at the demographics, at where we need to be at the next election, we need more people in the North voting for us, more of what they call here 'blue collar' workers and I call the white working class.

"We need more people from urban areas voting for us, more people who are not white and more women.

"I play that back and think, 'I'm a woman, I'm not white, I'm from an urban area, I'm from the North, I'm working class - I kind of fit the bill. All the groups that we're aiming for are groups that I'm familiar with."

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