CVs should be made anonymous so recruiters can avoid "subliminal discrimination" according to the Liberal Democrats' spokeswoman for youth and equality issues.

Lynne Featherstone said job applicants should not have to put their name, gender, race or age on their application forms or CVs but only their national insurance number - meaning they can then impress face-to-face at the interview stage.

Following her speech during the debate of the second reading of the Equality Bill, the MP for Hornsey and Wood Green wrote on her blog: "The key issues [with the Equality Bill] are the gender pay gap, the duty on bodies to reduce socio-economic inequality, the ending of discrimination on age in goods and services, procurement and much more.

"But one idea I floated was how to stop being disbarred from getting a job - before you even get an interview. Lots of people get thrown on the scrapheap because their name is a giveaway as to their ethnicity, sex or age."

"This is not just about discrimination that is overt - but in a pile of applications it's about also subliminal and unconscious discrimination."