Enact 106

We are calling for the urgent implementation of Section 106 of the Equality Act 2010 so that it’s in place for the next election. It would require political parties to collect and publish data on their candidates’ protected characteristics, exposing where there are gaps in representation and creating real accountability. With a ministerial commitment to implement it, putting Section 106 into action would be a decisive step towards creating a Parliament that genuinely reflects modern Britain.

Britain’s democracy remains only partially representative of the people it serves. Women vote in equal numbers to men, yet hold just 41 per cent of seats in the House of Commons despite making up over half the population. Only 90 MPs are from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds, and just ten have declared a disability, a stark disparity in a country where one in five working-age adults is disabled.

The imbalance begins long before polling day. At the 2024 general election, only 31 per cent of candidates were women. In 50 constituencies, every candidate was male; no single seat fielded an all-female slate. According to our research no major party achieved gender parity in candidate selections: Labour came closest with 47 per cent women candidates, while Reform fielded just 15 per cent.

Without measures like Section 106, progress risks remaining uneven — and incomplete. We’ve built support for Section 106 with MPs and political parties and there has been a Ministerial commitment to bring Section 106 into force. Together with our partners at the Electoral Reform Society we have set out how we think Section 106 could be implemented and work in practice.