Record BME MPs bring historic Black unity

The word historic is one that is too often overused; a lazy description usually deployed to try and artificially inflate or hype, some otherwise mundane, high profile activity.

The recent OBV gathering of Black and ethnic minority MPs celebrating the largest number of BME MP’s to be elected in British political history was however, truly historic. Many attended from both sides of the house. Those who didn’t, profusely apologised having prior engagements

Never in the history of British Parliamentary politics have so many Black, Asian ethnic minority MP's and members of the House of Lords gathered together under one roof.

Hosted by Home Secretary Theresa May, the event would do no harm in burnishing her leadership credentials with multicultural Britain. The event saw a unique coming together of senior black Government ministers and Shadow Cabinet members alongside back-bench members, assorted members of the House of Lords alongside a spindling of aspiring politicians, journalists and celebrities.

Truth is there are only a few black organisations that could have organised such an event. And of course, as one of its founders, I’m proud to say that Operation Black Vote is one of them, At times when they all sat together to have an official photo I was reminded of the world famous picture, "One fine day in Harlem" taken in 1920's America that captured some of the most famous jazz artist of the 20th Century.

Black Tories, Black Labourites, Black diplomats and Black business men and women, all mingling together, and treating each other with the kind of civility that would put some of their colleagues to shame.

There has long been a desire of a Parliamentary Black Caucus, first mooted by the late great Bernie Grant MP. However, the machinations of parliamentary ego's and career ambition always thwarted the project. Some 20 years later, we are older, a little more mature and sensible policy debate on race equality issues should not be beyond our reach.

There is a consensus there to be had. Look at the Home Secretaries stance on ‘Stop and Search’ which is a perfect example of the Tory party listening to Black communities and responding. A cross party consensus on this issue alone would be a major step forward in having an informed debate on race inequality that is informed by facts - not bigoted opinion.

There may be more agreement to be had on the issue of creating a level playing field for black entrepreneurs and the need for special area status for deprived areas.

Getting more Black youth into Eton and Oxbridge could be another. Even better our own Black high achievers school.

Small, but significant progress could also be made in creating an environment where the objective realities of race inequality are identified and joint course of cross party action can be agreed upon. That would be a huge step forward if BME MP's have the vision and the foresight to take that leap of faith.

With rates of racial inequality between Black and white citizens growing, the demand for some degree of leadership on these issues is an urgent demand from British Black communities. The All Party Parliamentary Committee on Race is an obvious place to start and maybe the Home secretary could commit to attending and encouraging others in her party to do so.

The event celebrated the good news that the we now have more Black and Asian MP's than ever before. In 1996 there were just five MP's, today there are 41- that’s 36 new MP's over the course of 4 elections. Thats on average 9 an intake. In order for the UK Parliament to look like the country it serves, there would need to be 95 elected MP's in the House today.

The bad news is while we have more BME MP's and members of the Lords, we are seeing a reduction in the number of Black and Asian ethnic minority councillors at a local level.

At the present rate of progress it would take another 30 years to achieve that by which time the Black and Asian communities would have increased in number massively. Add to this population growth, the planned reduction in the number of Parliamentary seats as proposed by David Cameron's Boundary Changes plans, and it is quite conceivable that number could go down, not up.

It was a fantastic event and a great testimony to the work of OBV and the respect it enjoys from all sides of the House. It’s potential for helping to promote more cross party consensus on issues of policy, is alongside nurturing talent, one of the most important contributions of OBV. As OBV’s long-standing Director, Simon Woolley said:

Today we quietly celebrate, tomorrow we roll up our sleeves and get back to work, helping to deliver greater race equality."

Lee Jasper