The MP for Cheltenham had this to say:

I’d like to add my support to Reflecting Britain. There are too many MPs in here who look rather like me. How much talent must we be missing out on from the rest of the population?

London MEP Sarah Ludford comments:

The principle of non-discrimination has always been at the very core of Liberal Democrat values, so we have to work harder to get Liberal Democrat ethnic minority MPs (as well as more MEPs and councillors) elected. The alienation of some of our British black and Asian citizens is deeply worrying, and political representation is a crucial contribution to ensuring the better participation of minorities in every aspect of society. All three leadership candidates have signed up to this campaign, so we have reason to believe that there will be marked improvement in ethnic as well as gender diversity of our successful candidates. I urge all party members to help in changing “Reflecting Britain” from a slogan into an accurate description of the Liberal Democrats in the 21st century.

MP for Northavon Steve Webb lends his support:

I am pleased to write in support of the campaign for a Liberal Democrat parliamentary party that more fully reflects modern Britain. I have been pleased to support previous initiatives such as mentoring women PPCs, and will be happy to do what I can to further the goals of the campaign.

Northern Region MEP Fiona Hall comments:

I’m lucky - I’m a member of a parliamentary party which does reflect Britain. In the Liberal Democrat European Parliamentary Party, the 12-member Lib Dem European Parliamentary Party we have seven women and one person from an ethnic minority. I think that makes us a much stronger group and one which more people can relate to.

We should reflect on the various actions we took as a party in order to achieve a representative group of MEPs, and consider what actions we now need to take to make sure that all our groups of elected representatives truly reflect Britain.

Ceredigion MP Mark Williams adds his support:

Participation and involvement are the key to a vibrant democracy. In eight short months in the House of Commons, it has become very clear to me how unrepresentative of women and the ethnic minorities Parliament really is. That’s why ‘Reflecting Britain’ is such an important initiative, so whatever your background, whoever you are, get involved.

Liz Wheeler, the Chair of the Women Liberal Democrats, has signed up to the campaign, saying:

It is crucial for the credibility of the Liberal Democrats that urgent action is taken to address the under representation of women in the Parliamentary Party in order to fully represent the population they seek to serve.

Vice Chair of the Liberal Democrat Federal Policy Committee Jeremy Hargreaves comments:

Simply hoping that candidates who reflected Britain’s full diversity would just come forward may have been a reasonable approach forty years ago – but you only have to look at our benches now to see how comprehensively it has failed.

Making our party reflect Britain’s diversity is a hard-headed decision about our party’s self-interest – bluntly, if we want people to vote for us, we have to look like them.

We need to take the difficult decisions so that we actually do that.

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.

Councillor Nasser Butt from Sutton, former Chair of Multi-Faith Forum, EMLD, Muslim Forum, and former PPC for Mole Valley, writes:

Most of my time with Liberal Democrats over the last 14 years has been spent on trying to make our Party more reflective of Britain. In the process I have seen the loss of many very good and hard working EM PPCs, Councillors and ordinary members to other Parties due to blockages they experienced they experienced in our Party. I am delighted at this Reflecting Britain campaign, which appears widespread from across the membership for the party to become more reflective of our Diverse Society.

If the current candidates are signing up to the support on this issue, than we will have to hold them to account to “Walk the Walk” and chase thru the delivery on their pledge. If we can do this, we can hope for a change. We only have to look at the news to know how desperately Britain needs to become inclusive.

Ethnic Minority Election Task Force member Baroness Kishwer Falkner writes:

Unless we improve representation from diverse candidates in this party, we risk looking white, pale and male. I don’t want to give our supporters the impression that we do not care, as we obviously do. But we now need to translate talking the talk into walking the walk. Let’s go for it.