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She also issued a blunt warning to Labour that its campaign to secure more female MPs could end in failure unless constituency

She also issued a blunt warning to Labour that its campaign to secure more female MPs could end in failure unless constituency parties selected more women for winnable seats over the next few months.The new research was presented to a private seminar on women’s attitudes to politics at Downing Street last month, which was attended by several ministers and key aides of Mr Blair. It revealed that satisfaction ratings with the Government’s performance were 13 points lower among women than men. This raises the prospect of a return to the “gender gap”, which helped the Tories to retain power for 18 years until Labour eliminated it at the 1997 election.”Women remain the most vulnerable element of Labour’s vote,” a report to the meeting said. “Women see the world very differently from men; politics needs to reflect this. Women had high expectations of New Labour; these expectations have not yet been met.”Deborah Mattinson, director of Opinion Leader Research and a Labour adviser on women’s issues, said in her report: “Labour must continue to reassure that ‘macho’ Old Labour is dead… We need some symbolic acts of ‘a different style’ of government.”The polling listed female concerns as education (class sizes, standards, discipline); health (waiting lists, staffing issues, priority illnesses); the cost of living (mortgages, prices, pay, benefits, child care); crime and “managing their complex lives”.Focus group discussions found women were “impatient for change”, so there was “a more urgent need for results” in what they regarded as the priority areas. According to the report, they care about other people, such as their children, parents or neighbours, while men see things from their own perspective.

“Politics is seen as a ‘male’ pursuit – impractical, intellectual,” the report said. “It is seen as a gladiatorial game, not suited to women’s personalities. Its career structure implies a single-minded focus that few women can apply. Hence, it has been seen as a male world with little real impact on women’s lives.”Women want a different kind of politics in which politicians understand their “multi-tasking” and “work constructively and positively rather than being adversarial”.Ms Jowell agreed that the Government should own up to its mistakes “We should always do that,” she said. “The tradition of politics is gladiatorial, confrontational and highly aggressive.

We know that turns women off; it turns men off too.”Yesterday, Mr Blair appeared to take the report’s recommendations to heart when he admitted he had been wrong to oppose Rhodri Morgan’s attempt to become First Secretary in the Welsh Assembly. “He’s doing a very good job, he’s exercised real leadership and I have to say I got that judgement wrong,” he said.Asked in a newspaper interview about criticism that he is a “control freak”, Mr Blair said: “Essentially you have got to let go of it with devolution.” He added: “You’ve got to exercise discretion. You’ve got to know the battles to fight and the battles not to fight.”. Labour and the Conservatives were accused of “playing the race card” yesterday as the Liberal Democrats called in the Commission for Racial Equality to investigate their approach to asylum-seekers. Labour and the Conservatives were accused of “playing the race card” yesterday as the Liberal Democrats called in the Commission for Racial Equality to investigate their approach to asylum-seekers.
The Tories’ attempts to deny the charge were undermined when Gary Streeter, the Opposition spokesman on international development, issued a veiled criticism of his party’s move to exploit public concern over the rising number of people claiming asylum. “I feel uncomfortable about some of the language,” Mr Streeter said. “I think the duty of all responsible politicians from all sides is to say, ‘Come on, these are human beings, let’s welcome here those who are fleeing for their lives, but let’s have a system in place which sends everyone else back quickly.”As the Government confirmed plans to build more high-security detention centres for people refused asylum, the Liberal Democrats reported both the Tories and Labour to the commission over their remarks on asylum-seekers.Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesman, said: “There is growing concern that the struggle by the Conservative and Labour parties to be seen to be tough on asylum and immigration issues is motivated by short-term party political advantage, rather than any objective of longer term racial and national tolerance.

We pander to hostility to immigrants at our peril.”But Trevor Phillips, running mate to Frank Dobson as Labour’s candidate for mayor of London, said the Liberal Democrats were on “very dangerous territory” because at local level they campaigned for “local jobs for local people”, which was code for “keep the blacks and others out”.Barbara Roche, the Immigration minister, told GTMV’s Sunday programme the Tories should “watch their language” over asylum-seekers, and they were making race an issue in next month’s local authority elections. She said there were problems with people making unfounded claims for asylum, and more “detention space” was needed to hold them while their claims were processed.John Bercow, a Tory frontbench spokesman on education, said, on the same programme, that there “isn’t a racist bone in the body” of Mr Hague or Ann Widdecombe, the shadow Home Secretary, who wants most asylum-seekers held in detention centres.But Shaun Woodward, the former Tory MP for Witney who has defected to Labour, told GMTV: “For goodness sake, let’s not use words like ‘bogus’ and ‘flooding’, which is about stirring up racial hatred.”The Tory local election manifesto, with the phrase “flooding our country with bogus asylum-seekers”, has been criticised by the United Nations as an apparent breach of an all-party agreement last year that free speech should not be used “for political advantage by inciting or exploiting prejudice on the grounds of race, nationality or religion”. A spokesman said the party was concerned only with “bogus” asylum-seekers.. Tessa Jowell, the minister for Women, warned yesterday that Labour’s long-term drive to boost the number of its women MPs will be in jeopardy unless constituency parties select female candidates for the next general election. Tessa Jowell, the minister for Women, warned yesterday that Labour’s long-term drive to boost the number of its women MPs will be in jeopardy unless constituency parties select female candidates for the next general election.
In an interview with The Independent, Ms Jowell appealed to local parties to give priority to women in winnable seats, to prevent Labour’s 101-strong band of women MPs being reduced after the election, which is expected next year.Labour’s Millbank headquarters fears the party’s traditional male-dominated culture will reassert itself when constituency parties select their candidates in the next few months. Some men who failed to win seats in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly because of rules which helped women plan to take revenge by landing safe Westminster seats.”We have taken a big stride towards a more representative House of Commons,” said Ms Jowell.

“The message to constituency parties is: don’t let us lose that progress.”Labour’s target is to ensure the party has equal representation among men and women after two more general elections, and Ms Jowell says the fate of that goal now lies in the hands of party activists.”You can’t talk about the importance of equality on the one hand and then do nothing about it on the other,” she said. “It is in the power of every single Labour Party member to stay true to the party’s commitment to be a party for men and women.”Should local parties use positive discrimination by choosing a woman even if a more impressive man is in the running?”Of course you make decisions on the basis of merit,” Ms Jowell replied. “We have a truly outstanding panel of women putting themselves forward. Almost all of them would give any male candidate a run for his money.”Ms Jowell insisted Labour’s drive was “not about tokenism or political correctness” and that a representative Parliament was one way of achieving a modern democracy.