South East Lib Dem MEP Sharon Bowles has become the first MEP to sign up to support the Liberal Democrat’s “Reflecting Britain” campaign.

Sharon said: “I know from my work in the European Parliament, where our Lib Dem team is 7 women and 5 men, how important it is to have people in teams with different skills, opinions, backgrounds and cultures. Our Westminster Parliament should be no different. We have enormously talented people, male and female, in our party who come from a whole range of different backgrounds, and we should be making every attempt to ensure we are using those talents at the top of our Party. I wish the Reflecting Britain campaign every success.”

Sharon is now urging other Liberal Democrats to sign up to support the campaign too. She said “This campaign will only succeed if Parliamentarians, Councillors, activists and members from all over the country really get behind this excellent new initiative. I would urge party members at all levels to join me in supporting this campaign.”

You can join Sharon by signing up here.

All three Liberal Democrat leadership contenders have accepted the Reflecting Britain leadership challenge and pledged to support the party’s Gender Balance and Ethnic Minority Election Task Forces.

Chris Huhne commented:

“I have made the equalities issue – for women, ethnic minorities and the gay community – a key priority of my campaign. I was the only candidate to mention the problem at the first hustings at the London School of Economics, and I was proud that exactly half of the parliamentarians who backed me at first were women including Sandra Gidley, Lynne Featherstone and Susan Kramer.”

Ming Campbell commented:

“Liberal Democrats have been at the forefront in promoting equality and anti-discrimination legislation since 1965. However we have not achieved fair representation in our party for women and ethnic minorities, nor indeed for other under-represented groups such as disabled people and young people. We cannot be at ease with ourselves until our Party is reflective of our diverse communities.”

Simon Hughes commented:

“I have always supported the Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats and actively challenged the lack of Black and Minority representation both externally and internally to the Party. I have consistently supported and will continue to support the work of the Gender Balance Task Force and believe that we should support, guide, headhunt and mentor more women and Black and Minority members so that they can be candidates for our Party.”

Co-ordinator of the Reflecting Britain campaign Candy Piercy added:

“We are delighted that Chris, Ming and Simon have pledged to actively support the Liberal Democrat’s work to make our Parliamentary Party more reflective of modern Britain. It is vital that the new leader makes this issue a priority.

“We will continue to campaign over the next few weeks in order to raise the profile of the issue within the party and will ask the leadership contenders to help us with this. We are also keen to encourage as many party members as possible to consider applying to get approved as a candidate. With the party’s top target seats currently starting to select their candidates for the next general election, now is the perfect time for people to put their names forward.”

You can add your voice of support to the campaign by going here.

105 107 Liberal Democrats, including dozens of parliamentary candidates and councillors, 4 MPs and 2 members of the House of Lords, have now signed up to the Reflecting Britain campaign, which was launched last week.

The Reflecting Britain campaign is calling on the Lib Dem leadership contenders to support the work of the Gender Balance and Ethnic Minority Election Task Forces. These groups exist to encourage more women and BME members to put themselves forward as parliamentary candidates and helps them by providing training, support and mentoring. The Gender Balance Task Force successfully lead to a marked increase in female MPs at the last General Election, but it has always struggled to receive adequate funding.

The MPs signing up in the last couple of days include party high-flyer and spokesperson on Europe Nick Clegg.

The former chair of the Gender Balance Task Force Baroness Harris has signed up. Commenting, she said:

“It is imperative that women play their part in political policy and decision making. Our party may have accepted this tacitly, but it is now time to ensure our new leader addresses this question as a matter of urgency.”

The Chair of the Ethnic Minority Election Task Force Cllr Rabi Martins has also signed up. He said:

“I honestly cannot see how the Party will make the breakthrough in the next general election without significant support from our ethnic minority citizens. And we are unlikely to get that support until we are seen as a Party that is inclusive at every level. That is why it is important that we hear what the leadership candidates have to say on this subject.”

The Reflecting Britain Campaign has asked the leadership contenders to sign up to a statement supporting the Gender Balance and Ethnic Minority Election Task Forces. In addition, it has asked them to respond to five questions about how best to ensure the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party is made more diverse. The answers received from the candidates will be published on the website on 1 February.

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.