Stand up and be counted

Back in September, Ed Miliband declared his ambition to create a mass membership Party and said “change is the only way to build a truly One Nation party so we can build a One Nation country.” Like other members, I welcomed the prospect of a Labour Party with 500,000 members but began to think where ethnic minorities fit in all of this.

I’m sure others have discovered at their CLP AGM that they are the new Ethnic Minorities Officer due to the fact they’re the only ethnic minority in the room. The following questions enter your head ‘what am I meant to do?’ and ‘who was the last ethnic minority officer?’ with your fellow comrade responding to both questions with ‘don’t know really’.

I think that as with the House of Commons, the principle that the membership should reflect the general public as much as possible. I spoke to a recently selected Labour PPC who stated that they only had one ethnic minority member out of a CLP of 300. However, ethnic minorities count for nearly 5% of the constituency population. Although only one example, it begs the question whether as a Party, are we truly representative?

It’s well documented that support for Labour among ethnic minorities remains high. However, as Sadiq Khan said earlier this year it cannot be assumed ‘as a bloc vote that automatically supports Labour.’ Demographic changes will lead to greater competition for ethnic minority votes. This will mean that Tories will make inroads with selection of ethnic minority candidates, and attending ‘ethnic’ events in the hope of discovering ‘gatekeepers. The best way to respond is to harness the voice of ethnic minority members we have, to ensure the Party is responsive to the needs of different ethnic minorities up and down the country, in relation to education, health, crime and the economy.

There’s a lot that can be learnt from Labour Women’s Network and LGBT Labour who through their campaigning efforts have mainstreamed issues and further enriched the Party. It’s therefore no surprise that when carrying out a quick search of ‘women’, ‘lgbt’, ‘ethnic/minorities’ on Gloria De Piero’s Twitter profile in the first 50 days that she has been Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities there are 42, 8 and 0 matches respectively.

Change is the only way to build a truly One Nation party. BAME Labour needs to:

• Lead the revival of local ethnic minority forums to mainstream issues, whether that’s differential health outcomes of ethnic minorities, disproportionate youth unemployment or female genital mutilation?

• Campaign on representation that is not limited to MPs and councillors, but within the Labour movement, including the Party (CLP, regional and National level), Trade Unions and left leaning think tanks

• Demonstrate itself as a valuable campaigning asset, on the doorstep or in the phonebank, delivering the message that a ‘One Nation Labour’ government in 2015 is for all

In the meantime, get in touch at [email protected] or @LabourBame

Raj Mandair is an Executive member of BAME Labour