Home Secretary, Braverman, espoused very right-wing views with harsh policies on
immigration, making racist ‘sweeping and appalling’ comments about British-
Pakistani men. Referring to abusers in a child sex abuse case, Braverman said that
they held ‘cultural values totally at odds with British values’. Baroness Warsi, member
of the House of Lords and a former Conservative MP, argues that it is harder to hold
an ethnic minority MP to account for racism, claiming that ‘black and brown people can be racist too’. 13 Warsi contends that ‘Braverman’s own ethnic origin shielded her from criticism for too long'. 14
It is true that minority ethnic representation in both government and parliament has
increased markedly in recent years, for example in 1987 there were 4 MPs from
minority ethnic backgrounds and in 2019 there were 66. 41 were Labour, 23 conservative, and 2 Liberal – amounting to 10% of MPs. 15 However, since about 16%
of the population are from a minority ethnic background, there is still progress to be
made. The devolved governments are less representative - in September 2022 the
percentage of MPs from a minority ethnic background was 4.5% in the Scottish Parliament, 5% in the Welsh Parliament and 0% in the Northern Irish Assembly. 16
However, the current UK government is historically the most racially/ethnically
representative yet. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed his first Cabinet in October 2022 with 5 Ministers from minority ethnic backgrounds, including himself. 17 Despite this, ‘this show of diversity in our cabinet is not progress’ if the Prime Minster leaves racist views and rhetoric unchallenged. 18
13 Sayeeda Warsi, ‘Listen to Suella Braverman and Realise: This Show of Diversity in Our Cabinet Is Not Progress’, The Guardian (2023), <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/12/suella-braverman-diversity-cabinet- british-pakistani-men-rishi-sunak>. 14 Warsi. 15 Elise Uberoi and Helena Carthew, ‘Ethnic Diversity in Politics and Public Life’, House of Commons Library (2022), <https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01156/>, p. 5.
16 Uberoi and Carthew, p. 5. 17 Uberoi and Carthew, p. 5. 18 Warsi.
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