Improving black, Asian and minority ethnic representation

Councillor Steve Reed, Leader of the Labour Group at the London Borough of Lambeth, describes attempts to improve the representation of black, Asian and ethnic minorities in the council.

Like many councils, Lambeth is not representative of the ethnic diversity of the community it serves. Lambeth is one of the most ethnically diverse boroughs in Britain with almost 40 per cent of the population from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities. But only six per cent of the borough’s councillors are drawn from those sections of the population. Under-representation to this extent represents a serious democratic deficit.

All the parties on the council are seeking to improve their BAME representation. I hope it will be instructive to share the Labour party’s experience of trying to address this problem.

Over two years ago, the Labour party group set up a consultation event to which we invited black community leaders and party members. We asked them to tell us why we had failed to engage the black community more closely in public life – not just as councillors, but also as school governors and trustees of voluntary organisations.

We were given some very stark feedback. We were told that too many meetings were dull, bureaucratic, held at inconvenient times, and have impenetrable and confusing structures. There was insufficient allowance taken of the fact that many black citizens lacked the long history of involvement either in a political party or a trade union, in formal community activism more generally, or of the kind of middle class career that prepares you for the experience of being a councillor. In short, our structures unintentionally alienated people from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.

The effect of this was to limit the pool of black party members and activists wishing to put themselves forward for selection as council candidates, and to limit the chances of those who did put themselves forward from being selected.

Having understood this, we set up a programme called ‘Integrated Voices’ to try and address the situation. ‘Integrated Voices’ was led by black party members, but with the strong support of the entire local party and its leadership. It established a programme of meetings, workshops, mentoring, and outreach work to try and identify black party members who wanted to get more involved.

The programme then set about building black members’ capacity to engage with the party and develop stronger campaigning skills and knowledge of the local political process so that people had the confidence, profile, support and experience to get selected in winnable seats for the following council elections.

The programme received strong backing from senior figures in the party, adding credibility and helping publicise the initiative. Baroness Amos, the first black leader of the House of Lords, addressed two well attended meetings, as did others including Jeanette Arnold, Murad Qureshi and Val Shawcross from the Greater London Authority, Cabinet Minister Tessa Jowell, and Lambeth’s other local MPs.

Up to 100 black party members became involved during the course of the programme, highlighting issues of concern to BAME communities and revealing a great pool of talent and experience that we were failing to tap into.

The final test came when the Labour party began its round of selections for next May’s all-out elections. We currently have just three black councillors out of a total of 29.

Following over two years of the ‘Integrated Voices’ programme, we have just selected nine black candidates in Labour-held wards, with several more in marginals that we hope to win.

Whatever happens in Lambeth next May, we will have taken a major step forward in making our party group much more representative of the ethnic profile of our borough. And whether we end up in power or in opposition again, that is going to make a major difference to the council’s ability to reach out to the talent, experience and concerns of Lambeth’s black, Asian and ethnic communities. 

 Article by Steve Reed, first published by the IDeA.  www.idea.gov.uk