DAVID CAMERON appointed four of the seventeen Conservative women MPs to his Shadow Cabinet yesterday, handing a startling promotion to Theresa Villiers, who entered Parliament only last May.

Ms Villiers, a former barrister and MEP, was made Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury as Mr Cameron tried to bring on new talent while uniting his party by giving jobs to leading figures in the campaign teams of rival candidates for the leadership.

Mr Cameron doubled the number of women in the Shadow Cabinet but there was still disappointment among some MPs last night that none of them was in a top position. One said: “There are still more Davids than women in the Shadow Cabinet.”

Theresa May was made Shadow Leader of the Commons, Caroline Spelman kept her post of Shadow Secretary of State for the Office of Deputy Prime Minister, and Cheryl Gillan was made Shadow Welsh Secretary. Both the Welsh and Scottish Secretary jobs have been brought back inside the Shadow Cabinet.

David Willetts, who backed David Davis, was made Shadow Education Secretary and Chris Grayling, who ran Liam Fox’s campaign, was made Shadow Transport Secretary. Oliver Heald, who also backed Dr Fox, stays as Shadow Constitutional Affairs Secretary.

Andrew Mitchell, who ran Mr Davis’s campaign and helped to strengthen it after the Blackpool conference, remains in the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow International Development Secretary. Alan Duncan is promoted to Shadow Industry Secretary and Hugo Swire comes in as Shadow Culture Secretary. Peter Ainsworth returns as Shadow Environment Secretary.

Andrew MacKay, the former Deputy Chief Whip, was appointed a senior parliamentary and political adviser to Mr Cameron. In one of the most eye-catching appointments, Mr Cameron appointed Nick Herbert, another newcomer in May, to the new post of Shadow Minister for Police Reform. The move confirms Mr Cameron’s pledge during the campaign that he would shake up police practices, making it easier to retire officers or sack those not up to scratch.

John Redwood stays in the front line, leading a policy group on economic competitiveness. Eleanor Laing was made Shadow Minister for Women and Equality. Paul Goodman is the Shadow Minister for Childcare, in the Treasury team.

Andrew Lansley, who backed Kenneth Clarke, remains Shadow Health Secretary, and David Lidington, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary.

David Mundell was made Shadow Scottish Secretary.

Zac Goldsmith, the multimillionaire editor of The Ecologist magazine, is said to have been invited by Mr Cameron to help to lead a rethink on environmental issues.

On Monday, Mr Cameron will unveil plans to increase the number of women candidates, having called the current number of Tory female MPs “scandalous” in his acceptance speech on Tuesday. He will stop short of adopting all-women shortlists, which are deeply unpopular with rank-and-file members. Instead he will adopt a system which places a large number of women on an A-list of candidates from which constituency associations must choose.

Mr Cameron will also announce proposals to overhaul selection panels, asking associations to invite outsiders such as business figures or police chiefs to take part. The panels will be told to play down the importance of the speech to activists, and instead assess skill at dealing with constituents.

He will also commit the party to use head-hunting and mentoring to identify and train women for selection. Mr Cameron will present the plans as doing everything in his power, short of positive discrimination, to improve the situation. The number of women Tory MPs rose from 14 to 17 at the last election.

But he has only six months or so. The party wants constituency associations in key Labour and Liberal Democrat seats to have candidates in place by the summer. If few of the target seats select women Mr Cameron will be under even more pressure to use all-women shortlists. The Conservative Women’s Organisation has abandoned its long-held opposition to them and asked the leadership to make it party policy.

Mr Cameron appointed Bernard Jenkin as deputy chairman with responsibility for candidates. Mr Jenkin’s wife, Anne, is behind a campaign group called Women2Win.

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