News from The Labour Party

Harman: Labour is the party that has always championed equality

Speaking this morning at the Labour Party’s Eastern regional conference, Labour’s Deputy Leader and Party Chair, Harriet Harman took Trevor Phillips to task saying:

“Trevor Phillips is a great leader of the Equality Commission – a great institution set up by a Labour government. But what he was reported as saying in the Times was simply wrong, and I was glad he has made clear that it’s Labour which has ‘led the way’ in improving numbers of black and minority ethnic MPs in Britain.

“Barack Obama’s campaign challenged pessimism and defied defeatism and said “yes we can” – and he made this happen. That’s what we need to do here as well. We want to challenge the pessimism and defeatism which says Black and Asian people can’t succeed in this country.

“Labour is the party that has always championed equality. It was Labour MPs who broke down the barriers, starting with Bernie Grant, Keith Vaz and Diane Abbott and now with 6 times more Black and Asian MPs than all the other parties put together. But our pledge is full representation which means 4 times more Black and Asian MPs.”

The Labour Party has 13 Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) MPs, compared to two in the Tory Parliamentary Party and none in other parties. Local Government Association figures published in 2006 showed Labour with twice as many BAME local councillors than the other parties combined: Labour 8.8%, Lib Dems 3.2%, Tories 2.1%.

The Labour Party produced, among others, the first black woman MP, the first black minister, the first black woman minister, the first black Cabinet minister, the first black woman Cabinet minister and the first black woman mayor.

So far, the Labour Party has selected 32 Prospective Parliamentary Candidates for the next general election. Combined with the BAME MPs who are standing again at the next election the figure goes up to 44 and we are not at the end of the selection process.

The Labour Party has also introduced rules that ensure any BAME candidate applying for a Labour seat will go on the selection shortlist.

Next week, a Speaker’s conference is expected to be approved in the House of Commons – a year long Parliamentary inquiry looking at how Parliament can become more representative – which the Prime Minister asked the Speaker to convene last year. Harriet Harman will lead a debate in the House on Wednesday.

Harriet Harman set up a cross party taskforce in May to encourage more BAME women across the country to get into politics and become local councillors.

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