A new dawn?

Published June 18, 2017
The writer is a consultant and policy analyst.
The writer is a consultant and policy analyst.

THE 2017 British election is being hailed for its unexpected Corbyn surge whereby the Labour Party increased both its share of seats and the vote. In the slipstream of this unexpected Labour performance, the intake of the MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds has increased to an all-time high.

This represents a huge advance from the days of the British empire when only three Parsis of Indian descent were voted into parliament at different points in time. Dadabhai Naoroji was the first Indian-origin politician to sit on the benches of the Liberal Party between 1892 and 1895. Another Indian Parsi, Sir Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownagree, a Conservative Party member, was MP from 1895 to 1906. Yet another Indian Parsi, Shapurji Saklatvala, served his constituents in Battersea from 1922 to 1929. Saklatvala has the unique distinction of being one of the few MPs elected as a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

From then onward the British House of Commons returned to being an all-white house and remained so till 1987 when four black and ethnic minority MPs entered parliament. Since then, the number of such MPs has fluctuated, with the last parliament boasting 41 of them. However, this election has returned a record number of 52 black and ethnic minority MPs to parliament. Of the new intake, 12 MPs are of Indian origin with an equal number of Pakistani descent. In addition, there are three female MPs from Bangladeshi backgrounds. Another two MPs from mixed Palestinian-English and Kurdish-English heritage have also been elected to the House of Commons.

UK now has a record number of minority MPs.

Of the 12 MPs with Pakistani backgrounds, five are women. Three of the Pakistani-origin MPs have never before been elected to the House of Commons — Afzal Khan from Manchester, Faisal Rashid from Warrington and Mohammad Yasin from Bedford, while the only Pakistani-origin MP from the Scottish National Party, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, lost her seat in the just held elections. Most of the new MPs of Pakistani/Muslim origin will sit on the Labour benches whereas only three were elected on the Conservative ticket. Of these, Sajid Javid is also the secretary of state for communities and local government in Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet. He was the business secretary in the last conservative government.

Among the new minority MPs, two are of Sikh origin: Preet Kaur Gill, the first Sikh female MP and Tanmanjeet Singh from Slough. This is the first time they have been elected to parliament. Layla Moran is the first MP of Palestinian descent who won her seat from the Oxford constituency, making her the first female minority MP to represent the Liberal Democrats. Ms Moran’s presence in parliament will go some way in balancing the currently Israeli-tilted perspective on the question of Palestine. The rest of the field is dominated by black MPs.

Most of the ethnic minority MPs belong to the Labour party: their number adds up to 32 of the party’s total of 262 MPs. The Conservative Party’s 318 MPs include 19 MPs from minority backgrounds. Labour has historically been strong on diversity and equality issues. However, under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, there seems to be a concerted push to increase the number of minority members in the party and the House of Commons. In fact, Corbyn’s shadow cabinet has the highest number of ethnic minority MPs ever.

During the 2017 election, the Labour Party’s performance was hugely boosted by 65 per cent of ethnic minority and black voters choosing Labour over the Conservative Party. More importantly, Labour ethnic minority candidates won in non-urban areas. According to Operation Black Vote, the campaign group working on enhancing ethnic minority representation in parliament, this demonstrates that non-urban areas are at ease with society’s diverse and multicultural make-up.

However, beyond this feel-good news, there was a downside to the way some sections of the Pakistani community conducted themselves during the election campaign. The case of Bradford West is illustrative of this. In Bradford, the sitting MP of Pakistani heritage, Naz Shah, according to some press reports, was the target of the most misogynistic campaign conducted by both male and female members of the Muslim Asian community. However, Ms Shah won by a larger number of votes than she did the last time, heartening evidence that the Muslim community did not buy the misogynistic propaganda.

Similarly, the tactic of playing the religion card to bring down some Indian-origin candidates did not work as shown by results in Southall and Slough. Resisting this cynical ploy to garner votes, communities came together under the banner of Asian and black solidarity and returned the candidates by significantly higher margins. Hopefully, with the new generation of British Asian

politicians, the feuds of the subcontinent will also fade away.

The writer is a consultant and policy analyst.

Twitter: arifazad5

drarifazad@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2017

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