TMP Online

Keith Vaz MP, Chair of the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee and Chair of the Labour Party’s Ethnic Minority Taskforce, introduced his much anticipated 10 minute rule bill – the Race Relations (Election Candidates) Bill – in the House of Commons last week.

The Bill is meant to exclude from the operation of the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 certain matters relating to the selection of candidates by political parties. The Bill would allow political parties to adopt positive discrimination measures such as all ethnic minority shortlists - from which parliamentary candidates would be picked - along the same lines as the legislation introduced to allow for all women shortlists.

The Bill is supported by Britain’s most senior, elected, ethnic minority politician, Skills Minister David Lammy MP, who called for the adoption of such measures last June. Labour Party Deputy Leader and Leader of the Commons, Harriet Harman MP (left) was present at the First Reading of the Bill last Wednesday. Harman, has said that four times the current number of ethnic minority MPs need to be elected if the Commons is to reflect the national population. In a speech to London’s South Bank University recently, she said:
“The last General Election saw a net increase of only two minority ethnic MPs taking the total to just fifteen. But we still have further to go. If the chamber is to reflect the make-up of society, that figure needs to increase four-fold.”

Harman announced at the Labour Party Conference last September that she had asked Simon Woolley (right), the director of the pressure group Operation Black Vote to carry out an investigation into the viability of all ethnic minority shortlists. OBV recently won an award at the highly acclaimed Channel 4/Hansard Society Political Awards for its Welsh Assembly Member Shadowing Scheme. Reports over the weekend indicate that Woolley has now presented his final report to Harman. The Observer reported that Woolley concludes that all-black shortlists would be needed for two decades, after which talented candidates could be expected to make it on their own, and he identifies 100 constituencies with large ethnic minority communities as prime targets for such shortlists.

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg MP (left), has come out in support of Vaz’s Bill. Yesterday it was announced that he has written to Vaz supporting his Bill. Commenting on the Bill, Clegg said:
“We need urgent action to tackle the woeful under-representation of Britain’s ethnic minorities in Parliament. All political parties are letting Britain down. If we want to represent modern Britain, modern Britain must be represented in us.
“Legislating to allow all-minority shortlists is a crucial step, which should be used as a backstop to force parties to act now. We can no longer tolerate a political system that does not represent Britain as a whole.
“The Liberal Democrats have taken a number of steps to boost ethnic representation in our ranks: the creation of a diversity fund; the employment of dedicated staff to increase candidate diversity; and plans to establish a Leadership Academy to give targeted assistance to candidates. But we need to go further, faster.
“That is why I believe, if existing and planned resources fail to make the difference in the coming years, the Liberal Democrats will be duty bound to consider using the powers in this proposed Bill.”