Dave of Dave’s Knowsley diary chips in:

I think this is a very valid and important issue and one that should be raised with all three leadership candidates because as a Party we must do more to ensure our elected representatives do reflect the society in which we live. I have pledged my support to their campaign.

Thanks to all of you who have already signed up to the campaign, as of now we have 62 people signed up, including 2 MPs, 1 Peer and at least 19 people who were parliamentary candidates in 2005.

If you haven’t signed our campaign petition yet, please do. And please keep spreading the word!

Warwick-based blogger Alan Beddow explains his reasons for not supporting Reflecting Britain here.

His main reasons are that he opposes “tinkering with the selection process” and the lack of training made available to white men:

As a white, English Male, I feel at a disadvantage. There is some excellent training provided by some groups within the party that would be of benefit to me and to which I am denied. There is advice and guidance available to newer members of the party to which I am excluded.

For the record, Reflecting Britain is not advocating positive discrimination measures, but rather supports the Gender Balance and Ethnic Minority Election Task Forces which seek to encourage, mentor and support women and BME candidates. On the training issue, Mark Valladares rebuts:

At the same time, if you feel that there is lack of training targetted towards white, English males, why not raise the issue with the English Candidates Committee or the Parliamentary Candidates Association? Given that the latter is (effectively) the trade union for those on the Approved List, perhaps it has a role in helping you to develop any skills that you want or need.

One of the reasons for this campaign was to encourage a real debate on these issues, so we welcome the debate. Hopefully we’ll be able to change your mind, Alan.

Sunny at Pickled Politics has this to say:

I want bring your attention to a new initiative called Reflecting Britain that some Lib Dem MPs launched on Tuesday to increase representation of women and ethnic minority MPs within their ranks. Currently all 62 Lib Dem MPs are white and predominantly male.

In the current climate of intense turmoil, it would be great if they reinvented themselves by doing more than other parties in being sexually representative.

Councillor representative on the Liberal Democrats’ Federal Executive Meral Ece has leant her support to the campaign:

Over the years we have grown in membership and represent inner city areas, both at local council, and parliament. Unfortunately we do not reflect our electorate.

As a female councillor, from an ethnic minority, (Turkish), I am acutely aware that the party is grossly underrepresented by women and BME representation, at every level.

Whoever is elected as the new leader, they must throw their weight behind this important initiative, and make this happen.

Meral has signed our petition which you can do by going here.

The BBC have covered our launch:

A group of Liberal Democrats has launched a campaign to make the party “more representative” of the UK’s ethnic diversity.

MP Jo Swinson said the Lib Dems, whose 62 MPs are all white, “urgently” needed to draw “on a wider pool of talent”.

The Reflecting Britain group is calling on the party’s next leader, who will be named in March, to tackle the issue.

The three leadership contenders are being set questions on how they propose to make the Lib Dems more diverse.

Keep those supporters coming! 15 31 at last count and growing!

UPDATE: The launch has also been covered by DeHavilland.

Susanne Lamido is the first blogger to come out in support of the Reflecting Britain campaign, and fills in some of the background to the campaign:

Following the successful BME motion at the London Region’s Autumn conference prepared by Mark Valerdares of Liberal Bureaucracy the Region has submitted a motion for debate at the Federal Spring Conference which has been accepted.

The website Reflecting Britain has been set up which explains some of the thinking behind the motion. It call on the Leadership contenders to address the gender and ethnic balance with 5 poignant questions being asked how they propose to address the balance to reflect the cultural diversity of modern day Britain. Whether or not they will be voting for the motion to create a properly resourced Ethnic Minority Election Task Force. The existing EMETF under the Chairmanship of Cllr Rabi Martins has worked hard since it was set up 18 months ago but without resources it has been difficult to implement some of it’s plans.

She also likes our “cool” button and encourages bloggers to add it onto their websites. To do so, simply follow the instructions here.

Thanks to Stephen Glenn who has already done so.

A new campaign to support women and ethnic minorities within the Liberal Democrats is being endorsed by Jo Swinson MP.

‘Reflecting Britain’ has been launched to coincide with the Liberal Democrat leadership contest, and seeks to make the Parliamentary Party more representative of 21st century Britain.

Jo has praised the campaign and urged the three leadership contenders to address the issue of under-representation of women and ethnic-minorities.

Commenting on the campaign launch, Jo said:

“The Liberal Democrats’ Gender Balance Task Force (GBTF) has made significant progress, with 7 out of 21 new MPs elected in 2005 being women. With increased resources it could do so much more to achieve greater representation of women.

“Where we need change most urgently is in the representation of ethnic minorities. The Party must mirror the success of the GBTF and give a genuine voice to ethnic minorities in Parliament.

“I would urge the three leadership candidates to sign up to this campaign and address the issue of under-representation of women and ethnic minorities.

“Drawing on a wider pool of talent will strengthen our party at all levels.”

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.