DAVID Cameron has made an appeal for the Conservative Party to elect more women candidates locally and nationally.

But it has emerged that the Tories in Oxfordshire are fielding just 12 women in the forthcoming district elections the joint lowest number of the main political parties.

Oxfordshire goes to the polls on Thursday, May 4, with seats on Cherwell and West Oxfordshire district councils, and Oxford City Council to be contested.

In total, 58 district council seats in Oxfordshire are being contested.

The Green Party is fielding 33 candidates, 18 of whom are women, Labour has declared 46 candidates, 14 women, the Liberal Democrats have 53 candidates, including 12 women, and the Conservatives have put up 52 candidates, of whom 12 are female.

In his first major speech since becoming leader, made at the Tories' Spring Conference in Manchester at the weekend, Mr Cameron said: "In recent years Britain has changed faster than ever. Much of that change, the direct result of our own actions in Government.

"So true to our traditions, we are changing once again changing our priorities, changing our attitudes.

"Changing the face of our party with action to select more women and candidates from ethnic minorities.

"So don't think it's enough for the leader to change. This change I'm leading has got to be faster, wider, deeper."

In Parliament, the Conservatives have 17 women MPs fewer than one in ten of their parliamentary party.

A former Labour county councillor, Brian Hodgson, who is a political statistician, said: "All parties need to improve their representation of women, but the Conservatives have much more ground to make up than others and David Cameron will find it very hard to achieve his aim, no matter how admirable."

Gabby Bertin, David Cameron's spokesman, added: "The situation in Oxfordshire isn't reflected across the country. I know we've done particularly well in getting women selected." Scientist Judith Harley is one of the 12 Tory women candidates seeking election on Thursday, May 4.

Ms Harley is standing in Cowley Marsh, a ward which is held by the Liberal Democrats, a seat she failed to win in 2002.

She also stood as a Tory candidate in Cowley and Littlemore in the county council elections last year.

Ms Harley said: "As far as I am concerned David Cameron has not made that much difference, people are more concerned on the doorsteps about what is happening in their own locality.

"I work hard for the community, which is more than the current councillors seem to do. I would not do this unless I believe I could make a difference."

Meanwhile, Mr Cameron admitted he has no "magic wand" to cure Oxfordshire's NHS financial crisis. A week before senior management is likely to confirm that job cuts are necessary to ease a deficit of £35m at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, the Witney MP said he would be "silly and ridiculous" to promise he could save jobs or wipe the slate clean.

"The only remedy", he said, was to "strip out the bureaucracy", reducing the number of primary care trusts and strategic health authorities a move which has already been directed by the Government and is due to happen in July. Speaking to The Oxford Times at the party's spring conference, Mr Cameron said: "The real problem is that while the Government has funded extra money into the health service, they haven't fundamentally reformed the structures, so the system isn't working properly and it is particularly bad in Oxfordshire.

"I can't promise a magic wand and say I'm going to solve all these problems, but we can have a system that works properly where we strip out some of this bureaucracy, where we have too many Primary Care Trusts, too many strategic health authorities and start having real independence for hospitals and allowing GPs to be much more in the driving seat in commissioning back care on behalf of their patients."

Concern is growing at how many jobs are on the line as the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust which is responsible for the John Radcliffe hospital, Churchill Hospital and Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and the Horton, Banbury battles to balance its books. The hospitals trust employs a total of about 10,000 people across the county, including medical staff and ancillary workers.

Last week, the chief executive of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, Trevor Campbell Davis, said managers would be "looking at the workforce" as a way of lowering costs quickly.

But Mr Cameron said: "You can never make promises that jobs will be saved that's the sort of promise politicians make and nobody believes it's ridiculous."