BLITZ BUREAU
BRITAIN’S new Prime Minister Keir Starmer will oversee a parliament more ethnically diverse and more female than ever after securing a landslide victory in the election on June 4, as per a Reuters report. Black, Asian and ethnic minority lawmakers will represent around 13pc of the House of Commons, up from 10pc in 2019, when Britain last held a parliamentary election.
Largest ethnic minority
Britain’s new governing party will have by far the largest number of ethnic minority MPs — 66 out of the 87 elected. But that diversity is unlikely to be reflected in its top cabinet when Starmer elects his front bench.
Shadow foreign affairs minister David Lammy, justice minister Shabana Mahmood and energy minister Ed Milliband are among ethnic minority ministers expected to be named in Starmer’s top team. Thangam Debonnaire, who had been expected to join the top team, lost her seat.
It will be the largest-ever share of ethnic minority members of the lower house, according to an analysis by British Future, a think tank. “The 2024 election is a landmark for representation, with record diversity in our parliament, closer than ever to that of the electorate,” Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, said. The irony that it coincides with the end of Rishi Sunak’s premiership as the UK’s first British Asian Prime Minister only underlines how ethnic diversity has become a new norm across the main political parties.”
Women power
The incoming parliament will include a record 242 female lawmakers, 22 more than after the last election in 2019.
When Labour’s Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black female lawmaker, entered parliament in 1987 there were just 41 women in the House of Commons. Abbott, who was re-elected to the seat in northeast London which she has held for 37 years, will become the ‘mother of the house’ – an honorary title given to the longest-serving female minister.
