Party must attract more ethnic minorities, says Letwin

Oliver Letwin, the shadow Foreign Secretary, admitted yesterday that the Tories were not trying hard enough to attract women and ethnic-minority candidates as he helped to launch a scheme to give black, Asian and Chinese high-flyers experience of Parliament.

Twenty-five MPs, including the Prime Minister and the Tory and Liberal Democrat leaders, will be shadowed by people from ethnic minorities for six months in a project run by Operation Black Vote.

The scheme, launched by Mr Letwin and John Reid, the Labour chairman, was designed to give "black people a foothold on the ladder into political activism". More than 600 people applied to take part in the scheme, which includes helping politicians with their daily work at Westminster and in their constituencies.

Carolyn Zhixin Choong, 21, who is shadowing the Liberal Democrat MP Edward Davey, said politics appeared to be dominated by "older, middle-class, white males".

Simon Woolley, of Operation Black Vote, said the 25 people taking part in the scheme would be the next generation of ethnic-minority politicians. "There are lawyers, community activists and others who have a great deal of dynamism and a desire to play a full and positive role within our decision-making process," he said. "Political parties would be mad not to fast-track this talent."

Andrew Lansley, Tory MP for South Cambridgeshire, who is being shadowed by Bushra Anwar from Earls Court, west London, said he wanted to see more people from black and Asian backgrounds being selected as Tory candidates.