The Representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic MPs and Councillors in politics.

Image: Deniz Fuchidzhiev, Unsplash.

Why has it taken a long time for representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnics (BAME) MPs in parliament, and also representation of BAME councillors in local government? Liberal Democrat MP, Munira Wilson and Deputy Labour Leader, Councillor Kemi Akinola, both from, BAME, background speak of the importance of representation of MPs and councillors in politics.

There has been a slow but steady increase of MPs from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) since 1987. More recently on the 7th of June 2020, Conservative Health Secretary Matt Hancock, defended the lack of Black MPs in cabinet when questioned by Sky news. He said “The Cabinet is one of the most diverse in Black history”.

Historically, the first BAME Conservative MP elected is thought to be David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, for Sudbury, Suffolk in 1841. He was mixed with Indian and European decent, followed by Liberal-Democrat MP for Finsbury Central, Dadabhai Naoroji, (of Bombay origin) who was elected in 1892.

Although Dyce Sombre and Naoroji were the first non-white MPs, there were no BAME MPs in the House of Commons after 1922, until 1987 when Diana Abbott (Labour MP, Hackney & Stoke Newington), was elected making her the first ever Black women MP. And in 2002 the first Black man elected as cabinet minister was Paul Boateng (Labour, Brent South).

Parliament has long been under scrutiny for the lack of diverse MP’s in cabinet. The 2019 U.K. general election is a reflection of the slow progression of BAME MPs.

“We could do better,” said Liberal Democrats MP, Munira Wilson (Twickenham). She adds that there is still a long way to go in terms of representation of MPs from ethnic-diverse background in the U.K.

Mrs Wilson is supportive for more representation of BAME MPs in parliament, especially following the 2019, U.K. general election, where according to, House of Commons, brief paper: ‘Ethnic and Minorities in politics and public life’, it states that “65 or 10% of members of the House of Commons were from non-white background.”

She adds, “It certainly has improved at this election which is really encouraging to see a lot more BAME individuals, but I think we can definitely do more. I’m not sure if we are yet reflective of the U.K. population as a whole, and I think until we’re at least at that level where we are reflective of wider society, [I think] there is progress to be made.”

The 2019 U.K. general election saw an increase of MPs from BAME backgrounds elected into parliament.

However, the proportion of women MPs still remains low in comparison to male MPs in the House of Commons. “The Tories struggle the most, I mean their number of women is pretty shockingly low to their number of [male] MPs,” said Mrs Wilson. The total for female MPs elected in 2019 was 220, the conservative party still remains gender unbalanced, whereas labour is now predominantly represented by women than men, where a 104 MPs are women.

Mrs Wilson was elected in 2019 U.K. general election to replace Sir Vince Cable as the Liberal Democrat candidate in his Twickenham constituency. She won with an increased majority, of 36,166 (56.1%) giving her the majority of 14,121 over her conservative opponent Isobel Grant.

She highlights that each party has their own process to make sure they have the right candidates, “In the Lib-Dem party we have a group within our party called the ‘Lib-Dem Campaign for Race Equality’, who do quite a lot of training, mentoring and support,” said Munira Wilson MP.

She said that in parliament there is initiatives set by the speaker of the House of commons, “Broadly I know the speaker of the House of Commons has got an initiative to improve under-represented groups engagement with parliament in political process, like the speaker’s scheme.”

The Speaker’s Parliamentary Placement Scheme is offering a 9-month paid work placement for “people who have skills, passion and potential to work here, but don’t have access to the traditional routes in.” The scheme is House of Commons’ “highest profile social mobility scheme.” And it opens in October 2020 and runs for 9 months, there is now 13 placements available with Members of Parliament from political parties across the spectrum.

On the 7th of June, the day of the third peaceful Black Lives Matter London protest, which was fuelled by the killing of Black-American George Floyd, in Minnesota, U.S. On the morning of the protest, Speaking on Sky News: Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock, was asked “How many Black MPs are in your cabinet?”

His said the cabinet was, “the most diverse” that he has ever sat in. But the Health Secretary struggled to name Black MPs in his cabinet, and instead named Chancellor Rishi Sunak, and Secretary of State for the Home Department, Priti Patel.

It’s not to say that the Tories never had a Black MP in cabinet, and indeed there was Kwasi Kwarteng, who used to attend cabinet until last February’s cabinet reshuffle. Also, James Cleverly, who is mixed race, who also attended cabinet, but was shifted from his role as Tory Party Chairman, and is junior Minister for the Middle East and North Africa in the Foreign Office.

In response to Matt Hancock answer to Sophy Ridge, Mrs Wilson said, “The thing is, yes it’s great that there are so much Asian individuals in senior positions, but I don’t think there are any Black MPs in cabinet and the problem with the term ‘BAME’ is that it puts everybody into the same category. And I think sometimes you need to look more specifically within that category, you can’t just say, ‘well ok we got a few’, but [I think] it’s good to see some Black MPs in cabinet too.”

Wandsworth Deputy opposition leader for labour, Councillor Kemi Akinola (Graveney, Labour) said, “I don’t think there is enough, they can still do a lot better, if we are looking at the make-up of the whole of the U.K., we could do a lot better. It’s not even acceptable that it has taken long.”

Cllr Kemi Akinola highlights the same issues in local government, and said that there are not enough representations of BAME councillors in Wandsworth Council, and in fact there are three BAME councillors, Cllr Maurice McLeod (Queenstown, Labour), and Council leader Ravi Govindia (East Putney, Conservative).

According to data report from Manchester university by Professor Maria Sobolewska, and Dr Neema Begum, illustrates that the lack of BAME councillors perpetuates racial inequality. Only 7% of all U.K. councillors are from a BAME background, this is half of the percentage of BAME people that make up of the country’s overall population, which is 14%.

The data report states that London Borough councils have the highest proportion of BAME councillors, where the population of non-white is also higher, in arears such as Hounslow (67%), Slough (67%), and Oldham (33%) were BAME people are over represented in local government.

Cllr Kemi Akinola highlights the importance of having BAME councillors, “We are supposed to represent you, the public. Councillors bring a lot of life experience too, to the table. I represent Graveney ward, and Tooting, we don’t actually have any Asian people on our Labour group. And that’s not a good thing, because a lot of the people who live in Tooting are Asian and South Asian. Who is representing their views? Although I go out and speak to those people from that background. It’s great to have a councillor that actually was from that background to represent their views.”

Both Cllr Kemi Akinola, and Munira Wilson MP said that representation is need in both local council and parliament, and acknowledge that more needs to be done in order to achieve true representation of what British society looks like.