The 10 women — who will be representing the three main parties at the next election — were selected by Glamour magazine for a photoshoot of the “hottest candidates”. Each is pictured “before” in their ordinary, mainly dark, working clothes and then “after” with colourful new outfits, high heels and freshly blow-dried hair.

Caroline Nokes, 32, says in the article, in the current March issue of Glamour, that the famous 1997 photos of “Blair’s Babes” inspired her to seek election, even though she will actually be standing for the Tories.

The Romsey candidate confides: “I’ve been told I’m too pretty to be in politics,” before adding, “the shoes are amazing but painful.”

Jenny Willott, 30, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Cardiff Central, thought her new sequined top was especially pretty.

“Although I might be trying to change the world for the better, it doesn’t stop me thinking, ‘Does my bum look big in this?’” she says.

Claire Ward, the Labour MP for Watford, is photographed in a Pocket Venus skirt which, she says, she would “never buy”, and Manolo Blahnik shoes that are too high to “wear all day”. However, she says the Marks & Spencer jacket is “definitely me”.

She recalls the reaction when she became one of the youngest-ever female MPs. “When I first joined in 1997 the older male MPs would call me things like ‘duck’,” she says.

Tory MP Eleanor Laing, 46, who was made shadow minister for women by party leader Michael Howard, says: “I have a huge collection of shoes and particularly like these Manolos.”

All three main parties believe that women are being turned off politics. In the 2001 election only 46% of women aged 25-34 voted, well below the overall voter turnout of 59%.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Time-worn Freddie gives up Test matches
• Brighton company 'involved in cyber attack'
• The art of survival: it’s all in the mind