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Chronic under-representation
of ethnic minorities in the House of Commons
(12 November 2008)
 Harriet
Harman, Leader of the House of Commons and Minister
for Women and Equality, today said that for the
first time Parliament has acknowledged it is not
representative of society, and that it needs to
change. Ms Harman opened a debate in the House
of Commons on a motion to establish a Speaker’s
Conference, which will consider and make recommendations
on how to improve representation of women, disabled,
and minority ethnic people in the House of Commons,
so that it better reflects society.
The
Government expects the Conference to consider other
issues such as Sexual Orientation as part of their
discussions. It will operate like a Select Committee
and consist of 17 MPs from across the political
parties. Ms Harman said: “Society has changed
and the House needs to change too. In this country,
as women, we regard ourselves as equal citizens
now, yet we are not equal in numbers in this House
- we are outnumbered by men four to one.
“This country is ethnically
diverse now, but out of 646 members only 15 are
Black or Asian. To reflect our population we need
more than four times more Black and Asian MPs.
How are we to convince young Black and Asian men
that they are genuinely included in our society
when they still see so few Black and Brown faces
on our green benches?
“There is a democratic
deficit - the missing faces on the green benches
are the missing voices in this chamber.
“The House of Commons
would have greater public confidence and have
more legitimacy if it was more representative
of this country as it now is. The Speaker’s
Conference will be a historic step forward in
the drive to bring Parliament into the 21st century.”
Women make up only 19.4 per
cent of MPs in the House of Commons. This compares
with women Members making up nearly half (46.7
per cent) of the Welsh Assembly, and 34.1 per
cent of the Scottish Parliament. Black, Asian
and Minority ethnic people make up about 10% of
the population - but less than 3% of MPs in the
House of Commons.
To reflect society, the House
of Commons would need:
- More than twice as
many white female MPs
- More than twice as
many Black, Asian and minority ethnic male
MPs
- More than ten times
as many BAME female MPs.
To address under-representation
in the House of Commons and in public life, the
Government is:
- Changing the law to
allow political parties to use All Women Shortlists
for another five general elections until 2030;
- Going to allow employers
and public authorities to take Positive Action
to address under-representation via the Equality
Bill;
- Encouraging more minority
ethnic women to become local councillors with
the Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Women
Councillors taskforce;
- Setting new targets
on gender, race and disability in public appointments;
- Giving a stronger diversity
remit to the Commissioner for Public Appointments;
- Launched a new diversity
programme with the Women’s National Commission
to make sure women know about public appointments.
The Speaker’s Conference
will “consider and make recommendations for
rectifying the disparity between the representation
of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people
in the House of Commons and their representation
in the UK population at large. The Conference
may also agree to consider other associated matters.”
The Conference was requested
by the Prime Minister as part of the ‘Governance
of Britain’ agenda. The last Speaker’s
Conference was in 1977. There have only been five
in the last century. In 1916-17 the Speaker’s
Conference secured cross-party agreement on the
principle that women should have the right to
vote. This Conference led to the Representation
of the People Act 1918, which extended the right
to vote to women over 30 years old.
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