A group of Liberal Democrats have launched the Reflecting Britain campaign to coincide with the party’s leadership contest.

The campaign, which seeks to raise the importance of making the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party more representative of 21st century Britain, has been set up by the Chair and Vice Chairs of the party’s Gender Balance Task Force Sandra Gidley MP, Jo Swinson MP and Candy Piercy, as well as the Chair of the Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats Fiyaz Mughal.

The three leadership contenders are being asked to sign a statement of support for the party’s Gender Balance Task Force and Ethnic Minority Election Task Force and are being set 5 questions to answer on how they propose to make the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party more diverse and reflective of wider society. The answers given to the questions will be published on the campaign’s website.

Commenting on the launch, campaign spokeswoman Candy Piercy said:

“The Gender Balance Task Force has made great strides in encouraging more successful women candidates for the Liberal Democrats; 7 out of 21 new MPs elected in 2005 were women. But we have constantly struggled with severely limited resources.

“The party and its new leader cannot afford to be complacent about this issue. The party has repeatedly supported proactive measures such as training and mentoring in favour of positive discrimination measures such as all-women shortlists, but such initiatives come at a price. We believe it is high time the party provides the Gender Balance Task Force with the resources it needs to ensure it can make real progress in time for the next general election.”

Fiyaz Mughal added:

“We welcome the fact that in the last couple of years the Liberal Democrats have successfully elected an Asian MEP - Saj Karim - and MP - Parmjit Gill. Unfortunately however, Parmjit lost his seat in the general election and once again the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons is 100% white.

“If the Liberal Democrats are to get a Black or Minority Ethnic MP elected at the next general election, we must begin finding and supporting suitable candidates now. For a couple of years now the party has been committed to establishing an Ethnic Minority Election Task Force on similar lines to the one for Gender Balance; we believe that one of the first acts of the new leader should be to ensure that it is established with the political support and resources it needs to be effective.”

The campaign is also asking party members to sign a petition which will be presented to the new party leader at the Spring Conference in Harrogate.

6 Responses to “Reflecting Britain campaign launches”

1. Nigel Bain Says:
   January 24th, 2006 at 7:25 pm

   You have my support.
   Nigel Bain
   activist but not an official as my wife is!
   Welwyn Hatfield Liberal Democrat Party (all white but lots of women councillors and candidates around South Herts.)

2. Stephen Mallory Says:
   January 24th, 2006 at 9:55 pm

   If this is because you believe that white English MPs cannot properly represent their ethnic constituents, then what happens if you’re English and happen to be represented by an Ethnic MP?

   Quite honestly I dont care if my MP is male/female, gay/straight, black/white/sky blue pink - as long as they do what they were elected to do, so why are you insisting on such a divisive piece of nonsense??

3. semajmaharg Says:
   January 24th, 2006 at 9:59 pm

   I’m genuinely puzzled why it is you think that having more ethnic minority and women MPs is divisive. We aren’t arguing for quotas or fixed shortlists, just a programme of encouragement and support. Could you explain why you oppose this?

4. Cllr. Rabi Martins Says:
   February 12th, 2006 at 7:51 pm

   Stephen Malloary demonstrates exactly why this initiative is needed

   Stephen, the issue is not that white MPs cannot represent EM minority interests or vice versa. The question is how can a group of the Party claim to be representative of the general population when its Parliamentary Group comes from from just one section of the community ?

5. Jon Bloom Says:
   February 22nd, 2006 at 9:51 pm

   Positive discrimination IS divisive. Everything should be done to ensure an adequate & level playing field, regardless of colour, creed, ethnicity, gender or sexual persuasion.

   A Liberal Democracy should be precisely that. Positive discrimination is blatantly prejudiced and is against the whole ethos of the Lib Dems.

   I welcome Leaders, Cllrs, MPs & MEPs of any persuasion, so long as they are the best person for the job, and not because some numpty has insisted that only a restricted element can apply. (If the numpties get their way, why didnt they insist that we couldn’t have a leadership election if there wasn’t a female candidate, and a candidate from each and every diverse ethnic community et cetera?)

6. James Graham Says:
   February 23rd, 2006 at 11:28 am

   Reflecting Britain is not campaigning for positive discrimination. I would refer you to our FAQs.

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