The Conservatives have been criticised for failing to select more women for winnable parliamentary seats.

The Fawcett Society campaign group said the Tories had selected more men called Philip than females for their top 20 target constituencies.

The revelation came on Thursday despite strenuous efforts having been made by the party since 2001 to put forward a more representative candidate list.

Former Tory chairmen David Davis and Theresa May put in place a controversial selection strategy which included psychometric testing for prospective MPs in a bid to ensure more representative candidates were chosen.

However Conservative Central Office has little power over the constituency associations in the country on who is selected once the approved candidates are accredited.

It is thought that local selection panels still favour men to represent them in.

Some progress has been made towards encouraging more gay and ethnic minority candidates to come forward, but the number of women is still low for a party which has tried to present a modern image following two heavy election defeats.

With most polls showing the Tories still trail behind Labour, a general election this week would mean the Conservatives would still have less than one in 10 women MPs, according to the Fawcett Society.

Spokeswoman Laura Turquet said the finding presented "an appalling record for a party that is keen to modernise".

"The political landscape has changed since 1992 and the electorate now expect and want to see MPs from a range of backgrounds," she said.

"When 91 per cent of your MPs are white men, something has got to change."