How does the Tory party solve its ‘women problem’?

It’s a week since Harriet Harman claimed it was ‘raining men’ in the Tory party, and yet the debate still rages about whether the Conservatives have a ‘women problem’. Tory backbencher Tracey Crouch has written a forceful piece for the Mail on Sunday on why she felt Ed Miliband’s intervention at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday was patronising. It’s worth a read, not least because she tries to dispel the myth that women are being turned off Parliament just because it’s rowdy:

‘Some of the loudest and, in some cases, most effective hecklers in Parliament today are women MPs. Even the most unruly Labour men think twice before taking on Conservatives such as Anna Soubry and Claire Perry because they know they will be cut down to size by an even sharper and wittier putdown.

‘And Labour’s Emily Thornberry and Angela Eagle can shout as loud as anyone on the Opposition benches.