Ukip's new leader: Diane James tips the gender balance

Diane James' election finally tips the gender balance at the top of British politics Credit: PA

There have been many explosions in British politics over the past year or so - the spontaneous combustion of David Cameron's career, Labour's unity and the Lib Dems' electability to name a few.

But among all the political fireworks there is one eruption that is less often noted - the rocketing surge in the diversity of our politicians.

When she was formally announced as Ukip leader at 1.30pm today, Diane James finally tipped the gender balance at the top of British politics.

It is now the case that of all the parties represented in our Westminster parliament, more are led by women than men.

The Conservatives, SNP, DUP, Greens, Plaid Cymru and UKIP all have female leaders.

Labour, the Lib Dems, Sinn Fein (which doesn't actually take its seats in Westminster), SDLP and Ulster Unionist Party are all led by men.

That's 6-5 to the women.

The UK is onto its second female prime minister Credit: PA

Indeed, if you look even higher up the ladder at the parties which run the UK government and the devolved nations, three out of four are now led by women.

The UK, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have a female Prime Minister/First Minister, with Wales the only nation right now which is run by a man.

It's not just gender, but LGBT representation which is rocketing too.

It seems incredible that it's only nine months since the Scottish Secretary David Mundell phoned me to tell me he was coming out as the first openly gay Conservative cabinet member in history.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell is the first openly gay Conservative cabinet member Credit: PA

In that short space of time, the new Education Secretary Justine Greening has joined him, meaning that the British cabinet isn't far off mirroring the proportion of the population identifying as LGBT.

In Scotland, two out of the five parties represented in Holyrood are led by gay women.

And in May this year, Wales also elected its first ever openly LGBT assembly members (incredible that it took this long).

So that's the good news.

The bad news is that there is still a very, very long way to go before our politicians truly mirror the wider population.

Women are still woefully under-represented at cabinet level and in some of our main opposition parties.

Education Secretary Justine Greening has also come out Credit: PA

Labour and the Lib Dems have yet to elect a female leader in their history, and less than a third of MPs are women.

True, we're onto our second female prime minister, but there was a pretty long gap between them.

Then there is the even more troubling under-representation of ethnic minorities.

No major UK party has ever been led by a politician identifying as BAME and all parties struggle to properly represent this community in their higher and indeed lower echelons.

Only around 41 MPs identify as being from an ethnic minority, although that is an improvement on the previous parliament.

In summary, the election of Diane James is part of an explosion in the diversity in our politics.

But while we should celebrate the fireworks, they'll need to light a few more rockets under the British establishment before we finally achieve true representation of all minorities.