On Friday, 26th June, the Labour party organised a BAME hustings for the upcoming Labour leadership and Deputy leadership election at the Masefield Suite in the Harrow Leisure centre, Middlesex. This was a part of the many such events being organised across the country to give people a chance to engage with the candidates in an open and honest discussion about the party’s General Election defeat and what the priorities should be as it rebuilds for the future.
The 150 or more audience were made up of party members, supporters and interested members of the public from Asian, Afro-Caribbean and Chinese communities. The event was co-organised by Asian Voice, em taskforce and supported by BAME Labour- Nigerians for Labour, Turkish Friends for Labour, Bangladeshis for Labour, Lewisham BAME Labour, Voice and Chinese for Labour.
The hustings was held in two parts. The first half of the event was dedicated to the leadership election and the second to the deputy leadership. Candidates in the leadership hustings included MPs Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbin and Liz Kendall. Moderator was Rupanjana Dutta, Associate Editor of Asian Voice.
Candidates for the Deputy Leadership included MPs Ben Bradshaw, Stella Creasy, Angela Eagle, Caroline Flint and Tom Watson. This part was moderated by Vikram Dodd, Crime Correspondent of the Guardian.
The audience were allowed to ask questions, though they had to submit them prior to the event and included variety of topics- from immigration, to community representation to addressing issues concerning the BAME community.
The vote of thanks was given by CB Patel, Publisher/Editor, Asian Voice.
Rt Hon Keith Vaz, MP kick started the event with a minute silence for those who lost their lives in terrorist attack on Friday and then went to address the audience. He said, “I am pleased to welcome everybody here tonight for the Labour party Leadership and Deputy Leadership Hustings. This is the second ever Labour party hustings held specifically for the BAME community. I am most grateful to Kamaljeet Jandu, Chairman of BAME Labour and June Nelson, Vice Chairman of BAME Labour for all the support they have given.
“This is a historic time for the BAME representation in our political system. There are currently 42 Mps from minority and ethnic backgrounds, up from 27 in 2010. However there is more work to be done in our pursuit of true representation.
“All of tonight's candidates have a superb record in representing diverse communities. I look forward hearing their vision for our party over the course of this evening.”
Leadership candidate Yvette Copper in a statement said, “Labour should set a goal to double the number of BAME MPs in a Labour majority Parliament.
“With over a million ethnic minority voters choosing the Tories at the last election Labour cannot be complacent. If Labour is not representative of our voters how can we hope to keep their support?
“More than 15% of Labour voters are from BAME communities but just 10% of Labour MPs.
“If the number of Labour MPs mirrored the proportion of Labour voters there would be at least double the number of Labour MPs in a Labour majority Parliament.
“There are many causes for under-representation of BAME communities in Parliament. So there won’t be a simple solution.
“As leader I will personally oversee a taskforce – which will engage with BAME members of Parliament, councillors, NEC members and local Party activists, to ensure a step change in support for BAME candidates and activists.
“We need a development programme for BAME activists who want to be candidates, and candidates who want the support to win. We should look at how we ensure that shortlists are more representative. And it will report on bursary schemes to support aspiring candidates with training and support with selections.”
Andy Burnham said: "The loss of BAME support must act as a warning to Labour that it must never take any group of voters for granted.
"Labour has not been doing enough to bring people from ethnic minority communities through to positions of leadership at local level or national level. We should look at guaranteeing half the places on Labour shortlists to BAME people in at Parliamentary constituencies where over 50 per cent of the voters are BAME.
"We should look like the communities we seek to represent and help everybody to get on.
"Parts of our country are being left behind simply because of their race or what postcode they are born in - this is simply unacceptable and I am committed to keeping this at the top of Labour's agenda."
Deputy leader candidate Ben Bradshaw MP told Asian Voice, “"The BAME hustings were a fantastic opportunity to meet and engage with members on a variety of issues. I have always been clear that politicians must stop acting as if BAME communities are one monolithic block that all vote the same. There are numerous challenges and campaigns to be fought for BAME communities, and Labour should always be at the forefront of them. I'd also like to apologise that there is no BAME candidate on either leader or deputy leader ballot. If it wasn't for the principled and selfless decision by my friend and colleague Rushanara Ali to withdraw, there would only have been two candidates on the deputy leader ballot. So we all owe Rushanara a huge debt of gratitude."
Angela Eagle said, "I really enjoyed the BAME hustings. The audience asked some very important questions. I was particularly pleased to talk about the work I've done throughout my career to make our Party's representation more diverse. That said, there is still a lot more to do. If I am elected as Labour's Deputy Leader I will be working to get more BAME people elected to represent Labour on local councils and also in Parliament because Parliament needs to reflect the society we live in. We need people from all different backgrounds. It is something I am committed to making happen."
Photo courtesy: Raj D Bakrania, Prmediapix
