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MPs are too White
MPs are too white, says David Cameron
The Prime Minister says there is 'much more to be done' to encourage more people from ethnic minority backgrounds to enter Parliament.
By Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent
MPs do not represent the people of Britain properly because they are too white, David Cameron has said.
The Prime Minister said there is "much more to be done" to encourage more people from ethnic minority backgrounds to enter Parliament.
Mr Cameron made the comments in a preface to a book, "Rainbow over Westminster", which charts the increasing number of MPs who are black or from ethnic minority backgrounds.
In the preface, Mr Cameron said that the book “serves as a reminder – that there is much more to be done.
“Our Parliament is still nowhere near representative enough of the country we live in today."
“We should not presume that this will simply correct itself over time. History isn’t written for us: it is written by us.”
Mr Cameron said that he hoped the book – which is edited by the Labour MP Keith Vaz, who became the first British Indian to sit in the Commons for over 60 years when he was elected in 1987 – would help “to open up politics further”.
Since the first MP was elected 172 years ago, there have been 38 ethnic minority MPs in the Commons. Today 26 out of 650 MPs are from BME backgrounds.
In the 2010 election 16 men and women from black and ethnic minority backgrounds were elected – a quintupling on the three who were elected in 1987.
In an introduction, John Bercow, the Commons’ Speaker, said: “We need to ensure that we continue to benefit from the greater diversity of elected representatives.”
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Originally Posted by The Forgotten Sausage
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