A vote for Labour is a vote for diversity

Five years ago as a newly elected MP arriving in London I remember being fairly stumped by the first question I was asked by a journalist. The interview was about the economy, and it opened with “what’s it like being a woman in Parliament?” I seem to remember saying that I wouldn’t really know. Having only been elected for five minutes – and never having been a man – I had nothing to compare it to.

But I soon got used to the question, as I’ve been asked again and again over the years that followed. Anyone in politics who doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of an MP frequently fields questions about their class, disability, age, race, sexuality or gender. It can be irritating at times, but after five years of watching decisions about the future of the country made almost exclusively by older, privileged, white men, I’ve come to realise why it matters so much.

It matters because it inspires people. I was reminded of it recently watching the Newcastle born, working-class MP Ian Mearns talking with children from his constituency, showing them that politics is for people like him and for people like them. It roots us in a different perspective, as Davey Hamilton, who retired from Parliament a few weeks ago, hit home during an electrifying speech during the debate on detention without trial. His experience of being imprisoned without trial during the miners’ strike, gave him an authenticity that helped change the minds of many MPs who voted that day. And above all, it means we’re relevant. When I was a child, issues like childcare weren’t considered political. Now, thanks to women like Harriet Harman, Tessa Jowell and Yvette Cooper, they are.

They remind us that the progress we’ve made can’t be taken for granted. Arriving in Parliament five years ago to be greeted by statues of men, pictures of men and men in the chamber, committee rooms and bars. My first impression was where have the women gone? To sit on the Labour benches, where there are more women MPs than the other parties combined, is to face a wall of men in grey suits. It’s a stark reminder that there were more men in the last Parliament than there have ever been women, and only 37 women have ever served in the Cabinet.

As we approach this election we should remember that the other political parties have made little progress, and they have no plans to change it. Cameron’s last Cabinet had more privately educated politicians in it than women. By contrast Labour, who are responsible for almost two thirds of the women ever elected to Parliament, broke new ground. Under Ed Miliband’s leadership the shadow cabinet has almost hit his target of 50% women and includes big roles like deputy leader and shadow home secretary. As Sarah Owen, the PPC for Hastings and Rye reminded us in the Labour List Communities Pamphlet recently, if she’s elected she’ll be the first British Chinese MP, ever. We’ve got more BAME candidates, like the excellent Norwich South PPC Clive Lewis, than any other political party. And the selection of Emily Brothers in Sutton and Cheam has opened up an important debate about transgender representation and shone a spotlight on the huge discrimination that candidates like Emily face.

They remind us that there is no room for complacency. It’s the progress we’ve made that makes us so aware that we need to do more to increase the number of BAME MPs and ensure their voices are heard at the highest levels of the Labour Party. As we devolve more power out of Westminster and Whitehall, we’ve got to ensure our town halls, traditionally much more representative of their communities, attract and promote diverse candidates. There are real challenges to be faced around attracting younger councillors, ensuring people with disabilities can take part, and that we stop the decline of working class representation.

Being Labour means fighting for the many, not just sticking up for the richest 1%. We need the broadest range of voices in politics if we’re to have relevance and authenticity. Because we have more women, a wide range of regional voices and many young people in the party, our agenda speaks to wider concerns: replacing the House of Lords with an elected senate that represents the regions, real action to close the gender pay gap, putting bus travel and the bedroom tax at the centre of our manifesto, the only party with a youth manifesto written with and for young Britain.

There is no room for complacency. But it’s this recognition, and the determination to change it, that leads me to believe that a vote for Labour is a vote for diversity. As shadow Equalities Minister Gloria De Piero put it recently, “we talk a lot about smashing glass ceilings and rightly so but the Labour Party will never forget about the people who can’t even get through the door of the building.” So five years on, I can see that what started as an irritating line of questioning, really matters. The day they stop asking questions like “what it’s like to be a woman in Parliament?” is the day we’ll know we’ve cracked it.

Lisa Nandy is standing to be the MP for Wigan