Are the public fairly represented in our political system?

2010 was a good year for advocates of greater gender and minority representation in Parliament. Of the 650 MPs elected, 143 (22%) were women — the highest number and proportion ever in the UK. Representation of black and minority ethnic MPs rose from 14 in 2005 to 27 (4%), also a record. The average age of MPs fell from 51 to 50. While the Commons remains a long way from being a microcosm of the UK population — where women comprise 51% and BME groups around 9% — 2010 signalled an important move in the right direction.

Unfortunately, this is where the good news ends. Despite promising trends for gender and minority representation, closer inspection reveals persistent causes for concern.

Of MPs elected in 2010, 54% of Conservatives, 14% of Labour MPs and 39% of Liberal Democrats attended private schools, including twenty who attended Eton. Only around 6.5% of UK pupils are privately educated. Three-quarters of MPs were university graduates and over a quarter attended Oxford or Cambridge, compared to fewer than 20% of UK adults holding a first degree or higher. In terms of previous occupations, 35% had professional backgrounds, 25% had backgrounds in business and 14% were previously politicians or political organisers. Only 4% had manual worker backgrounds, compared to 12% in 1983.

These statistics suggest that despite efforts to increase candidate diversity, MPs are increasingly drawn from a narrower pool of the privately educated and professionally trained. As gender and minority representation edges closer to population levels, disparities in educational and vocational backgrounds stubbornly persist.

Candidate selection rules and quotas have played an important role in redressing gender and minority imbalances, and they remain necessary. But they have also distracted attention from other equally significant differences. The task now is to broaden the definition of diversity to include educational and vocational background — not just gender and ethnicity.