Not much political choice and lots of men

Analysis of candidates standing in the North Northamptonshire Council elections shows that local politics is still a man’s game

By Sarah Ward

Of the 318 political hopefuls who have put themselves up for nomination to North Northamptonshire Council (NNC), two thirds are male, our analysis has found.

31 wards will be contested across the North of the county on May 1, and of the 318 people who got their nomination papers in on time, 208 are men. Women’s rights charity The Fawcett society published a report after last year’s local elections and found that just 34 per cent of candidates were women and the picture in North Northamptonshire is similar. Some parties have fared much better than others on gender parity (read more below).

This election there is also not a huge amount of political choice on offer, with four parties fielding a full rosta (Conservative, Labour, Green and Reform UK), with just a handful of independents and one candidate standing for the Social Democratic Party. And there are lots of the same faces, with all of the current cabinet (except for leader Jason Smithers) standing for re-election, which will mean if re-elected many will have clocked up many decades of public service.

Read on for more analysis. Tomorrow we’ll examine the candidates standing for election to West Northamptonshire Council.

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Gender parity

The party that has fielded the highest percentage of candidates is the Green Party. The party, which took three seats in the NNC’s inaugural elections in 2021, is standing the maximum number of candidates in each ward and so has 68 hopefuls across the 31 wards.

31 of its candidates are women, which equates to 45.6 per cent. The party with the lowest percentage of women is Reform UK. Of its 68 candidates, just 13, or a fifth are women. The Conservatives have not done much better, with 18, or just over a quarter women.

Labour’s candidates are 60 per cent male and it’s a similar situation with the Liberal Democrats, who have 12 women (37.5 per cent) standing under its political banner. Of the handful of independent candidates eight are men and six are women.

The most equal ward is Raunds, which has seven men and seven women standing for election. The residents in the Pipers Hill ward in Kettering, will not have a choice of a woman to vote for.

The lack of gender parity matters. As we reported following Northamptonshire's 2021 elections, just 28 per cent of the elected NNC were women.

After the 2024 elections, the Fawcett Society Head of Policy, Research and Advocacy Alesha De-Freitas, said:

“51% of the population but just 34% of the candidates – where are all the women? Despite knowing that women tend to be more significantly impacted by local decisions, as we are more likely to rely on council-run services like social care, we are failing to make real progress on women’s representation at local level. We urgently need government to collect candidate diversity data– we simply don’t even have the numbers on how bad the situation is for Black and minoritised women. And we need to make being a local councillor accessible to representatives who have caring responsibilities.”

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Most contested wards

After a change to the number of wards and councillors, this year there are 31 wards and 68 new councillors will be returned to the council. Some wards will be represented by just one councillor, while others will have three councillors to represent them. (The number of candidates comes down to the size of the area).

The most fiercely contested ward is Oakley in Corby, where 15 candidates are standing from the five main parties. Residents living in Wellingborough’s Brickhill and Queensway ward; Rothwell and Mawsley, Irchester and Desborough all have a choice of 14 candidates. The ward with the fewest candidates is Avondale Grange in Kettering, with just four candidates.

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What do you want to know?

We will be asking the local parties a series of questions next week about the big issues such as services, climate change and finances. If you have any questions, please leave them here or email sarahward@nnjournal.co.uk

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Keep an eye on the candidates

There are many new faces standing for election, who do have a public profile. Also some candidates were put on the list fairly late and so may not have been vetted properly. If you have any concerns about who may be standing, or any tip offs, please also get in touch on sarahward@nnjournal.co.uk

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Election results

NN Journal will be reporting from the election counts, which will be taking place the day after the election in Northampton and Kettering on Friday, May 2. The count starts at 10am and we will be updating throughout the day and hoping to bring you the final results about 7pm. Both councils are currently run by Conservative administrations, but the national demise of the party may have a bearing on local results.

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Previously published by NN Journal

*Apologies this post is later than usual (we usually publish on a Tuesday). The excuse is half term.