Angela Browning

Three women have been appointed to top jobs within the Conservative Party in the week of the party's womens' conference.

Gillian Shepherd, MP for Norfolk South West, has been appointed head of candidate development in a move to get more women to stand for parliament.

A former cabinet minister in the departments of education and environment, she ran for the chairmanship of the backbench 1922 committee earlier this year.

Trish Morris, a speechwriter and party policy adviser, is now vice chairman of the party. She was a candidate for the party at the 1992 general election in Oldham Central and Royton.

Former shadow leader of the House of Commons, Angela Browning, will be working closely with party chairman David Davis as vice chairman with responsibility for the campaign against the Liberal Democrats, the party that were considered their biggest threat at the last election.