Black History Month
Thursday, 22 October 2026
Contributions
The Minister for Homelessness, Democracy, Communities and Faith (Florence Eshalomi)Labour (Co-op)
I beg to move, That this House has considered Black History Month. It is a great pleasure and honour to open this debate on Black History Month at such an important and timely moment. This is the third such debate in Government time, and follows the persistence of Members in applying for and securing Adjournment and Westminster Hall debates to ensure that black British stories are appropriately recognised in this House. In particular, I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Ms Oppong-Asare), who led no less than three such debates in the last Parliament. I was delighted that, as a Minister, she delivered the first ever Government-led Black History Month debate in 2024. I praise her persistence in ensuring that this debate is today given the time in the Chamber that it deserves—and not just because she now leads the Committee that scrutinises my ministerial brief. I recommend that Members read her excellent speech from two years ago. It would be remiss of me not to correct the record by saying that Nigerian jollof is the best jollof, but I join my hon. Friend in paying tribute to her fellow Ghanaian, Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, who was the special projects co-ordinator at the Greater London Council, and who first recognised Black History Month back in 1987. Back then, just 39 years ago, there were only three black Members of Parliament on these Benches: the late Bernie Grant, Lord Paul Boateng and, of course, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott). Although black Members still face challenges today, I honour and recognise the courage it would have taken to enter this House just a generation ago. I am sure that many of us will see that it is sometimes difficult for me and other black Members to imagine ourselves here without the trailblazing work that they did to make our path to the Commons possible. In particular, I express my gratitude to my right hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. I was just six years old when she was elected. I remember the quiet hope I felt in watching TV and seeing her in Parliament—to see that, yes, a black woman can have that voice, and that we do not have to stand by when decisions are made to us and not by us. That gave me the confidence to stand for public office as a local councillor in the borough where I grew up and later for the London Assembly, and to be the first black MP to represent Vauxhall, and now Vauxhall and Camberwell Green. I am delighted to sit on these Benches and see her represent her constituents as the Mother of the House.
Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)Democratic Unionist Party
I commend the hon. Lady for all that she does. I have no doubt that she will speak about her faith, which has been the strength of her character and personality. That is something I recognised when I came to this House and got to know her. I commend her for her leadership in taking on those challenges, as I commend all the other MPs. In our communities back home in my Strangford constituency, a number of people are from different countries across the world. They add to the culture and character of our constituency, and they work and do their bit. This debate gives us all a chance to say thank you, so I say thank you to the hon. Lady and to all my constituents in Strangford, who welcome people with ability and talent to come and work, live and thrive in this country.
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention—I am going to need some divine intervention from the good Lord so I do not lose my voice for the rest of this debate, so I appreciate it. He is right to commend the talent and diversity right across the UK, and the difference that those communities make by enriching UK life. Many of them share that special area of faith.
Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)Labour
I really do hope my hon. Friend’s voice holds out for this very important debate. Historic England’s blue plaque scheme rightly recognises notable Britons, but very few of the plaques are for prominent black Britons, and even fewer can be found outside London. That is why I have applied for John Kent, believed to be Britain’s first black police officer, to have a plaque in my Carlisle constituency, where he served in the 1830s and 1840s. Does the Minister agree that plaques like that for John Kent—if I am successful—are so important in ensuring that our black history is recognised right across our country?
I thank my hon. Friend for making that important point. It is good that English Heritage is considering that plaque—probably one of the most northern such plaques outside London. It is important that we recognise the rich contribution of many black Britons right across the UK. I hope that she will be successful in her pursuit of the plaque. The theme of this year’s Black History Month debate is “Honouring Our Communities”, which gives us the opportunity to recognise people from black communities up and down the country who work every day to make their area and our society better. They are people who start a business, mentor young people or volunteer their time to help run a community space, and whose contributions too often go unrecognised or underappreciated. Although Black History Month is about celebrating black Britons who have delivered outstanding achievements across society, who have helped to forge the country and who are here today through their visibility, it is also about recognising people in all parts of the country who may not make the news nationally, but who everyone in their neighbourhood knows. These are people like Lorna Jackson MBE. Coming to England aged five, Lorna went on to be an educator for nearly 50 years and a headteacher for 25 years. Today, she continues to serve a diverse community in east London. They are people like Claudia Jones, a Trinidad and Tobago-born activist and journalist who was granted asylum in the UK after facing political persecution in the US. In 1958, Claudia Jones founded the West Indian Gazette close to where I grew up in Brixton. The West Indian Gazette is often referred to as the first black newspaper in Britain. After the race riots of 1958, she organised the first Caribbean carnival in the UK, to coincide with the annual tradition in Trinidad, but as London is definitely a lot colder than Trinidad in January, the carnival was held at St Pancras town hall. It was a predecessor of Notting Hill carnival, which started in 1966 and continues to be a true celebration of culture and heritage to this day—thankfully in August and not in winter! My hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns) highlighted blue plaques. I was honoured to attend the unveiling of the English Heritage blue plaque dedicated to Claudia Jones three years ago, on 5 October 2023, outside a terraced house in my Vauxhall constituency that Jones called home for nearly four years—her longest place of residency in London.
Dawn Butler (Brent East) (Lab)Labour
Does my hon. Friend agree that Nubian Jak does an amazing job in ensuring that black pioneers are recognised all around the country with blue plaques?
I thank my hon. Friend for making that point. I praise the efforts of Nubian Jak and Jak Beula’s work across not just London but the UK in recognising black Britons and their achievements. In the face of barriers, both conscious and subconscious, black Britons have driven lasting, positive change in every community: change that has profoundly shaped the arts and culture of this country, that has made our politics more responsive and more representative, and that reminds us time and again that Britain’s historical and present diversity is a strength—something not to be torn down, but to be cherished and invested in. When we speak about honouring our communities, we are talking about the individuals across Britain who made them. Our national story is incomplete without the story of Mary Seacole, whose statue stands proudly in the gardens of St Thomas’ hospital just over Westminster bridge. That powerful landmark in my constituency continues to remind me of the values and aspirations that I came to this House to represent.
Rachel Blake (Cities of London and Westminster) (Lab/Co-op)Labour (Co-op)
I hope that my hon. Friend has the chance for some refreshment because I am a bit concerned about her cold. Our constituencies have so much in common, and I consider her a really good friend. She speaks about Mary Seacole, who also spent many of her days in Soho Square in my constituency. Given the theme of this Black History Month, I also want to reflect on the blue plaques before we move on. I am very proud to represent a place where Ottobah Cugoano, an anti-slavery campaigner, lived, in Pall Mall. Over Black History Month, I will be spending time telling that story of his campaigning and ensuring that it is well recognised. On the incredible culture we need to remember during Black History Month, I also want to remember Winifred Atwell, the first black artist to have a No. 1 single, who lived in Mayfair in my constituency. It is a real honour to represent such a diverse constituency with such a proud history of black Londoners and black British people. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the testimony she brings to this debate—and I hope she has been able to have a lot of water during my intervention!
I thank my constituency neighbour and want to recognise the many black Britons across not just London, but right across the UK who continue to be celebrated and remembered by hon. and right hon. Members from across the House. I felt immense pride at being able to choose the statue of Mary Seacole as the backdrop for my entry to the 40% Project last year, which photographs female MPs in recognition of the progress we have made towards gender parity in this House. This year’s theme feels especially relevant to the Windrush generation—so embedded in the fabric of black British history. Their legacy is not only the work they did, but in the communities they nurtured, the opportunities they created and the generations they inspired. Through the Windrush Day grant scheme, places across the country are telling stories in their own words, helping to ensure they are remembered and passed on. Their courage, perseverance and determination opened the doors for future generations, and that legacy continues to enrich our shared national history. But the Windrush stories also tell us that we cannot ignore the struggles we still face today. Black Britons still face deep systemic challenges every day, and although this Government are committed to tackling racial inequality and racism, it is our local communities who are on the frontlines. We need only glance online to see the racist rhetoric that has sadly been normalised. If anyone does not believe this, we just need to look at the racism—and let’s call it what it is—that my hon. Friend the Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Sagal Abdi-Wali) faced after she was announced as the candidate in the recent by-election. This type of politics has no place in our democracy, and I hope the whole House will join me in condemning it. Thankfully, my hon. Friend was undeterred and went on to win resounding support from her community, and I welcome her again to her rightful place on these Benches. I want to praise the Leader of the Opposition for her comments during her conference speech. We can disagree about things in society, but we should never normalise questioning someone’s loyalty or nationality based on the colour of their skin. We see the horrific consequences of this in the news far too often, and I want to take a moment to recognise and remember Jason Arday. His tragic death must be a call to action for all of us. I worked with Jason when I led as the project manager at the Runnymede Trust. Jason was one of the youngest board members.
Professor Arday has touched so many of us, and I will also refer to him in my speech. I thank my hon. Friend for ensuring that his name will be remembered in this place in perpetuity.
I thank my hon. Friend and Members who were able to join Jason’s family at the tribute organised by my constituency neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill (Bell Ribeiro-Addy). Unfortunately, I was not able to make that. Just this week, the comedian Munya Chawawa described the racism and homophobia that he and some of the cast members from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” faced at the Chichester Festival theatre during the production’s six-week run. He said: “I think I saw more” racism “in those six weeks than I have actually seen across my entire lifetime, which is just an insane concept…Some of you heard we had to cancel a show because one of our cast members was attacked just before the show—that is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Jess Brown-Fuller (Chichester) (LD)Liberal Democrat
The Minister will know that Munya Chawawa’s experience took place in my constituency. Chichester Festival theatre has been supporting the cast after they came forward and explained the racism that they saw. Munya also spoke about a “pipeline of hatred” that people are seeing on their screens and in their algorithms; it is shifting the Overton window and letting people think that things like that are okay when they are absolutely not. Does she agree that we need to call out the far-right rhetoric that is being pushed on to our teenagers’ social media screens, in order to protect people across the country who dedicate their life to creating wonderful art?
I thank the hon. Member; I know that she has been in touch with many of the cast members of that play and the Chichester Festival theatre. She is right that we have to ensure that we as parliamentarians, as a society, and as community groups do not allow this to be normalised, and think it is okay in 2026, in modern Britain. We can disagree on many things, but it is the responsibility of all of us in this Chamber, the Government and society to ensure that everyone is safe and able to live freely, and I want to be clear that the Government will not sit on their hands and watch this hatred thrive. In March, my Department published a cross-Government social cohesion plan, “Protecting What Matters”, which sets out more than 90 policy recommendations and commitments to improve cohesion, including measures to further tackle hate and inequality in everyday life. Throughout the United Kingdom’s history, we have overcome adversity by coming together and showing that we have so much more that unites us than divides us. We showed that exactly 50 years ago with the passing of the Race Relations Act 1976, a landmark piece of legislation protecting the rights of all of us to live free from discrimination, and the 1965 Act, which built the foundations of equality. History demands that, just as we celebrated the victories of previous generations, each of us must stand up for what is right in our time. That same unity remains our greatest defence. We must stand together against forces attempting to divide us, and must ensure that we all continue to be heard. I hope that Members will agree that there is a lot more that we can do, but united we are stronger. I commend this debate to the House.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)Conservative
I call the shadow Secretary of State.
Joy Morrissey (Beaconsfield) (Con)Conservative
It is a great pleasure to follow the Minister in this Black History Month debate. I pay tribute to her for all the work she has done across parties and across this House. She has been a champion for all communities but has particularly raised issues for people in the black community, such as knife crime, single parents, and stop and search in classrooms. She did all those things as a Back Bencher, reaching across the divide and caring about the community, regardless of who they were or where they were from. It felt as if she was just trying to represent all her constituents and raise the issues that mattered to them. Everyone across this House can connect with that. We in this House come from very different backgrounds and places, but there are Members of Parliament from every party who put their constituents and communities and the issues that matter to them first. The Minister is one of those, so I pay tribute to her and thank her for that. Every October we celebrate Black History Month, and this year marks its 39th year in the UK. It was a tradition started in 1987 by a Ghanaian activist who believed that black Britons deserved to have their history told, taught and celebrated. Black history is, of course, British history. Madam Deputy Speaker, please act surprised when you hear that my speech is very similar to the Minister’s. This will probably be a rare moment when we are in agreement and saying very similar things. The theme of Black History Month this year is “Honouring Our Communities”. It focuses on recognising the everyday contributions of black people across Britain. For me, this is a moment for important reflection. I came to this country with basically nothing and knowing no one, and the first community that opened their hearts and their doors to me were my friends in the West Indian Caribbean community in west London. They welcomed me and taught me what it was to be British. They brought me into their community groups and their church groups. They even allowed my mum to come to some of the events. I certainly knew about jerk chicken before I got to the House of Commons. I pay special tribute to the Acton Vale estate community, and to Grace and Chaney. Grace became one of my closest friends, and Chaney is her daughter, who I mentored and is now incredibly successful. They taught me what it was to be British and to care about the community. Grace was one of the first people who said, “You should think about being a Member of Parliament.” I had never thought about that before. I see the hon. Member for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan); she knows the Acton Vale estate. It was a transformative moment for me to feel that anyone could come to this country and be British and part of British society. We could have British values and be proud to be British—it did not matter where we came from. I learned that hope and that care for our community from my friends, and I am here today as a result. They probably unleashed more than they bargained for, but they were the first to encourage me— they probably deeply regret that now, but that is where it started. They showed me the very best of this country. I also pay tribute to the other local groups that I worked with, and to Bishara and Adam Matan, who have done tremendous work at the Anti-Tribalism Movement, which helped to tackle tribalism in the Somalian community in west London.
Deirdre Costigan (Ealing Southall) (Lab)Labour
indicated assent .
I see the hon. Member for Ealing Southall nodding, because they are well known across west London for the incredible work they have done for years with all the communities and local mosques. They taught me so much about celebrating all the different communities, and I pay tribute to them today. Black history in Britain has always been community history. When the Windrush arrived in 1948, the men and women on board did not just come to work; they built churches and social clubs that welcomed people when Britain often did not.
Natasha Irons (Croydon East) (Lab)Labour
On that point about community, and what the black community adds to it, I pay tribute to the work of the Croydon BME Forum, led by Dr Andrew Brown, and the chair of our Pride in Place board in New Addington, Julia Weller. These people are community leaders who put their communities first, whether in relation to tackling mental health issues, tackling food poverty or helping people who are struggling to pay their bills. There is always a warm welcome and a big smile. I wonder whether the hon. Member agrees with me— [ Interruption. ]
We have a musical accompaniment to the hon. Member’s intervention, which will no doubt be coming to an end because it should not be a speech. Unfortunately, that sounded like a Christmas-themed accompaniment, although it is far too early, for the record. Does the hon. Member wish to continue the intervention, or is the point made?
I will do it later.
Marvellous. Joy Morrissey, are you ready, without any music?
The Christmas holiday arrives! That was my summons to the Chamber, but the debate started earlier than I anticipated. Old age comes to us at many levels, and having to put an alarm on our phone is one of them. Happy Christmas to everyone. I thank the hon. Member for Croydon East (Natasha Irons) for her intervention. This is about the community. All of us have wonderful constituents who represent our communities and raise their concerns. Those community leaders have enlightened us and allowed us to speak with knowledge, and I pay tribute to all of them today.
The hon. Member has mentioned my constituency a couple of times, and I thank her for all she has said and the tributes she has paid to my constituents. Will she join me in congratulating Councillor Faduma Mohamed, who has been elected Mayor of Ealing for this year? She is a councillor in Southall West ward, and she is the first Somali-born hijab-wearing woman to hold that position.
I will indeed. I organised the first Somalian community day on the South Acton estate, though we then had to change the name to the wider “South Acton community day”, to be inclusive. That is wonderful, and I congratulate the new mayor. As a fun fact, I used to ride the 207 bus from Acton all the way to Southall and back—for anyone who has not been to Ealing, it is a fun journey. Like the Minister, I started as a councillor. It was a wonderful way of meeting the community and understanding it from the grassroots up. I will never forget that, and I believe it makes us better parliamentarians when we have had that experience on the ground. In 1963, Bristol’s black community, led by young people like Paul Stephenson, refused to accept a bus company’s ban on black workers. Their boycott helped to pave the way for Britain’s first race relations laws. Today, black people continue to play a key role in communities across our country, helping to bring people together. One of the reasons why black history is British history is that our black communities show that we can be an integrated, cohesive and multiracial Britain. We can celebrate the same values and be proud of who we are together. There will be black Britons who play a vital role in all our constituencies, offices and community groups. I pay special tribute to a family in my constituency, Rotimi, Marylene and Naomi Isaiah, for being my right hand in everything in Beaconsfield. I could not do my job without their incredible community support, and I thank them for everything they have done; I am sure that all Members across the Chamber could pay similar tributes. They do so much to support and encourage me personally in my work as a Member of Parliament. I was going to have them here today, but it will have to be next time. Turning to my work on women and equalities, I also want to recognise Nimco Ali, a survivor of female genital mutilation who has done so much to highlight that vital issue, to try to make sure that no other girls experience what she did. This year, the aim of Black History Month is to look beyond famous people and reflect on the contributions of everyday black Britons, but given that this is the first time I have spoken at the Dispatch Box in Black History Month, it feels only right that I should recognise someone famous—just one person, but a genuine role model for black female Britons. In 1987, the very same year that Black History Month began here, a young woman from Paddington walked into the House of Commons as Britain’s first black female MP. Today, she is the Mother of the House. When she arrived, there were only 41 women in the entire Commons. She was told in a hundred ways that she did not belong. She stayed anyway. For nearly four decades, she has represented the people of Hackney, championed black children in London schools and chaired the West Indian and sickle cell disease parliamentary groups. She has faced more abuse than almost any politician of her generation—and she has never stopped turning up. We do not have to share her politics to recognise what her presence meant. For millions of black Britons, especially black girls, she was proof that the doors of power could open and that someone who looked like them could walk through. Black history is not one month; it is being forged every day by people who see themselves first as proud Britons—I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for North West Essex (Mrs Badenoch), who I am very proud to have leading my party, for leading the way and opening opportunities for us all. It is British history that they, including those across this House, are writing, and it is a privilege to recognise all of them today.
As so many colleagues have mentioned the Mother of the House, it is only appropriate for me to say that I was able recently to step in for Mr Speaker at his Black History Month reception, where I was lucky enough to be joined by the Mother of the House, the right hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), and the newest Member of the House, the hon. Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Sagal Abdi-Wali). It was fantastic to be in the room with them both; the energy was fantastic. There was a huge backlash on social media. As the shadow Minister just said, we need to take a lesson from the Mother of the House, and ignore it and just keep going—which, no doubt, we will all do.
Hon. Members
Hear, hear.
Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)Labour (Co-op)
It is truly a privilege to speak in this debate during Black History Month—a month that gives us an opportunity to celebrate black history and black achievement, and to reflect honestly on the history that has shaped our country and the work that remains to be done. Black history is British history. It is the history of people who have contributed to every part of our national life—to our armed forces and our NHS, to our schools and universities, to our communities, to business, culture, politics, science and the arts. It is the story of people who have helped build this country, often in the face of prejudice, racism and discrimination, and whose contributions have not always received the recognition that they deserve. We should remember the generations of black Britons who served this country in times of war and peace. We should remember the Windrush generation and those who have followed—those who came to Britain with hope, determination and a belief in a shared future.
David Burton-Sampson (Southend West and Leigh) (Lab)Labour
My hon. Friend reminds me of my grandad, who came here from British Guiana to serve in the second world war, and my great-grandad, who arrived here from Liberia in 1925 and also served this country in the second world war. Today, people of my colour are made by some to feel like we do not belong in this country, but we have built and we have protected this country. Does she agree that people who deploy that rhetoric are wrong and need to start withdrawing from it?
My hon. Friend speaks for all of us when he says that it is time to call this out. It is vital that, as a society and as parliamentarians, we say, “No more”—that what we stand for is a country that is united, and that we will refuse to hear the racism that is now seeking to rewrite history, including the contribution of his forefathers. I pay tribute to the Windrush Commissioner, Rev. Clive Foster, to Professor Uzo and the Elders in Cardiff, to Ros Griffiths and the Friends of Windrush Square, and to so many other leaders from communities across the UK who work tirelessly to continue to right the wrongs of the Windrush scandal. Let me also thank all at the Black Cultural Archives in Windrush Square for their incredible work—their documentation of history and their approach to education and awareness, from enslavement to abolition, and on medicine, race and activism. I also support the campaigns that we have heard about today for greater inclusion of black people’s stories and histories in our culture and, indeed, our schools. This month, we also celebrate the extraordinary contribution that black Britons continue to make today. Black History Month is about understanding and appreciating how history has shaped the present, but it is also about the choices that we make now about what kind of country we want to leave for the next generation. I congratulate the Minister on her opening speech, and I am grateful that the debate is being held in Government time. She has been rightly recognised for her contribution in this House and in her community. I want to echo her tributes to the inspirational Lorna Jackson and Professor Jason Arday, and to recognise the important contribution that black people from across our community make and the racism that they experience. I want in particular to mention our black footballers, whom we should recognise; they do us proud every single day. As we mark 39 years since Black History Month began in Britain, we should recognise the role of black women. Too often, their experiences sit at the intersection of racial and gender inequality, and their achievements receive far less recognition than they deserve. We should celebrate the women who have broken barriers in Parliament, in public life, in business, in education, in our NHS and in our communities. Today, I want to talk about “sistory”—women who did not wait for history to happen; our sisters who made it, and who are still making it. Last year, I had the privilege to meet two remarkable Bristol bus boycott sheroes, Joyce Morris-Wisdom and Dr Barbara Dettering. Joyce was just 14 when she joined the protests in 1963. More than 60 years later, this remarkable grandmother continues to share her story and inspire new generations. Barbara, originally from Guyana, helped organise the movement, co-founded St Pauls carnival and built lasting community institutions. Their contributions belong to a wider tradition of leadership by black women in Bristol. They include women such as Carmen Beckford MBE, Bristol’s first race relations officer, and Peaches Golding OBE, the UK’s first black female lord lieutenant—different generations of women who have challenged discrimination, built institutions and opened opportunities for those who followed. These are women who helped challenge Bristol’s colour bar in 1963—the year my father came to the United Kingdom—and contributed to the momentum behind Britain’s first Race Relations Act, under a Labour Government, in 1965. The law was strengthened in 1968 and again in 1976, extending protections against discrimination and strengthening enforcement. Sunday 22 November will mark 50 years since the 1976 Act received Royal Assent. Madam Deputy Speaker, like you I pay tribute to the Mother of the House, who has been mentioned more than once today. Next year marks 40 years since she was elected as Britain’s first female black Member of Parliament. She was elected alongside Bernie Grant, Paul Boateng and Keith Vaz. These were not simply historic breakthroughs —their influence continues to shape Parliament and Britain today. I was the first female Punjabi Member of Parliament. I also pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Sagal Abdi-Wali); we were all honoured to help her get elected to the House. I congratulate her on her own first: she is the first Somali Member of Parliament. I note that she, like so many through history, has faced down those who said that she had no right to even be a Member of Parliament. That campaign was a wake-up call to the racism that begins even before a campaign starts. It is for us to say to everyone, whoever they are and whatever their background, that they too, as someone who is proud to be in Britain, have a place in this House.
Samantha Niblett (South Derbyshire) (Lab)Labour
Earlier this year, I was delighted to visit the Southbank Centre, in the Minister’s constituency, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain. As part of that, there was a magnificent celebration of youth culture through the medium of dance. A particular scene celebrated the excitement of the Windrush generation coming to our shores, but then talked about the adversity that that generation faced. It was a stark reminder that we are not born racist, but if we allow racism to seep into our society, like the poison that it is, we let the bad people win. We are not those people. Does my hon. Friend agree that 75 years later, we are still celebrating the festival of Britain, and that festival definitely includes a very diverse bunch of people?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right in all that she says. She is right to mark the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain. It was called for by Herbert Morrison, who presented the idea to the Cabinet, as part of efforts to build positivity and optimism after the second world war. As she may know, I want us to have another national festival of Britain, because it is time for us to celebrate much more of what we are as a nation. The Festival of Britain also contributed to the thinking behind the opening ceremony of the Olympic games that we hosted, and I hope that we can find many more opportunities to celebrate what we are as a nation today. Through her election, my hon. Friend the Member for Holborn and St Pancras is writing a new chapter in black history. At the last general election, 90 ethnic minority Members of Parliament were elected, according to Operation Black Vote, to all Benches, including 66 of my hon. Friends. I want to recognise our friend and colleague, Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon OBE. I am proud to have worked with her in her role as chair of the Race Equality Engagement Group to strengthen the relationship between the Government and ethnic minority communities. In its first year, the group focused on access to finance for ethnic minority entrepreneurs, maternal and neonatal care, cardiovascular disease, policing, education, transition to work and opportunities for young people, with recommendations presented directly to Ministers. I am proud that earlier this year, the Government published the consultation outcome and Government response on mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting. Ethnic minority and disabled people are less likely to be in work, less likely to be promoted and paid less, on average, than other employees. That is bad for equality, bad for business and, ultimately, bad for Britain. In the King’s Speech in July 2024, the Government committed to introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for employers with 250 or more employees. Introducing that reporting will provide vital data to help employers identify and take action to reduce ethnicity and disability pay gaps where they exist. I thank Dianne Greyson, founder of the Ethnicity Pay Gap Campaign, and those from the business world who have supported this work and with whom I have worked, including Business in the Community, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, BP, the London Stock Exchange Group, ShareAction, Change the Race Ratio and the Chartered Management Institute. We must find parliamentary time to move this policy forward. I know that the Minister is doing amazing work, but I would be grateful if in her closing remarks she could update the House on the Government’s next steps towards bringing forward legislation. As we mark history and progress today, let us remember especially that progress is neither linear nor inevitable. Rising racism and intensifying division risks tearing our national fabric apart. It is incumbent on Government—indeed all of us—to take a stand for the values we believe in. In the year ending March 2024, police in England and Wales recorded over 140,000 hate crimes, and roughly 70% were racially motivated. What we have seen happen elsewhere is increasingly close to home. We have seen vicious racist Reform UK councillors exposed by the recent ITV investigation, and Reform councillors calling children “animals” and talking about “infestation”. A councillor in my own constituency was recorded saying that he would “love to have slaves”. This goes against all that residents in Feltham and Heston stand for. Investigations into such behaviour must be credible, and our public life and society must stand strong against forces of racism and division. Before I close, let me mention just a few of my constituents who are an inspiration to me and working to make our community a better place. Alexis Isa and Faith Lamptey, two young black girls who are year 13 students, recently compered the first Hounslow women’s conference, which I co-hosted with my hon. Friend the Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Ruth Cadbury). Another young black student, Rhema Acheampong-Owusu, was our digital and video lead, and co-edited a phenomenal video about the contribution of women to Hounslow’s history. Her mother, Mabel Acheampong-Owusu, a regular volunteer at St Lawrence’s church Feltham who is beginning her own catering business, put her heart and soul into ensuring that there was breakfast and lunch for all who came. Hibo Mohamoud and Daud Hassan are two stalwarts of our local Somali community who are always there for others. Christiana Wuche is a lecturer in adult nursing at Kingston university and the founder of Igbo Women in West London. We stand on the shoulders of extraordinary men and women. They have been the torchbearers of the past, but it is we who are responsible for the legacy that we leave for tomorrow. Let us use this Black History Month not only to remember those who came before us, but to inspire those who come after us. Let us build a Britain in which equality is not simply something we aspire to, but something people experience in their everyday lives—a Britain where diversity is recognised as a strength, and where every child, whatever their background, can look at our national story and know that they are part of it. That is the Britain we should be proud to build together.
I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.
It is a pleasure to speak in today’s debate on Black History Month and follow some incredible contributions from the Minister, the shadow Minister and the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra). I thank the Government for ensuring that the debate takes place in Government time, as that is a clear indication of just how important the subject is. Britain’s black communities have enriched the social fabric of the United Kingdom, adding vitality to our streets, shops, frontline services and culture throughout the country. We would be a poorer, less dynamic, less exciting and less colourful country had individuals not boarded ships such as the HMT Empire Windrush and made Britain their home. As the Minister acknowledged, Black History Month has been marked for 39 years and when it was first celebrated, there were just three black MPs. Its purpose is to remember those who came before—as the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston said, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us—but it also looks to the future to address the systemic issues that our black communities still face. In Chichester and throughout the country, we owe our black communities so much, yet, in truth, society has let them down badly and continues to do so. The lives of far too many people are still blighted by prejudice, discrimination and inequality. I thank the Minister for raising the case that Munya Chawawa has brought into the light this week. He is an actor, comedian and social commentator, and his social commentary about his experience in the past six weeks in Chichester has broken my heart. He spoke out about the experience of the cast of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, who have been with us over the past six weeks doing a really cool production—it is one of the best versions that I have ever had the privilege of watching. It is also Munya’s first time taking to the stage—in a Shakespeare play—and it was incredibly inspiring to have kids from the BRIT School come and watch the performance. Munya has established the Black Boys Theatre Club, and it is his ambition to ensure that black children have access to theatre. I watched with delight all these young children talking about how much they had enjoyed watching Shakespeare in Chichester and how cool their first experience of theatre was in my constituency. Munya spoke about a homophobic attack—it has now been called a hate crime, and an arrest has been made—that caused the show not to go up. When that happened, the rest of the cast spoke about their experiences over the past six weeks of just walking through the city. When they went for a night out in Brighton to get out of Chichester, they experienced racism there. Munya has said that he experienced more racism and xenophobia in six weeks than he had experienced in his entire life. He has been a tireless campaigner against discrimination —he is very good at calling it out and doing so in a comedic way that lots of people identify with; that is why he has such a huge following on social media—and I am really grateful to him for calling it out. I declare an interest, as a trustee of Chichester Festival Theatre. The theatre has been trying to tackle this issue for years and years, and we have been having a conversation about it with the board. When we invite talented actors to Chichester Festival Theatre, we want them to feel like it is their home. We want them to feel welcome and included, so how do we make the environment around the theatre like that for them? I have been somewhat reassured by the outpouring of love both on social media and in my inbox from people saying, “I had no idea. What can we do?” One of the reflections that the cast shared with the theatre was that they were in the city centre when these things happened, but nobody called them out.
I thank the hon. Member for highlighting what happened in her constituency. One of the issues that black people and black Members raise is the fact that it can be continuously tiring when it is only black people highlighting this issue. Does she agree that by raising this issue as a constituency MP, she is shining another light on it?
I appreciate that intervention. It is not the job of those who experience the abuse to be the only ones calling it out. Going forward, we are working as a community to bring voices together so that we can talk about and come up with actions to better support those experiencing abuse. That should not be the job of those experiencing intolerance and abuse day in, day out. We also need to do some work with the police, whom I have spoken to at length over the last couple of weeks. When I say, “This is happening”, they say, “It was not reported”—well, it was not reported because people get really tired of constantly reporting things and not seeing a change. A lot of the cast members did not share their experience with the theatre before the homophobic attack that caused the show not to go up. It was only then, in a safe space, that they were able to say, “Actually, that resonates with me, because I experienced this when I was out in the city centre. I experienced this when we went out to get food.” They had not reported their experiences to the police, and the onus should not always be on them to do so. We need to have a wider conversation about what businesses and individuals can do in the city. In truth, it feels like we are going backwards. Somebody said to me the other day, “It does not feel like the Overton window has shifted; it feels like it has fallen out of its frame.” Much of the abuse comes from individuals who are emboldened by the growth and increasing acceptance of the far right on social media, in the press and across other platforms. Those are spaces, often pushed by prominent politicians, that make individuals, particularly young people, believe that certain language and behaviours are acceptable. Racist abuse and far-right views gain even greater reach when they are associated with political leaders; the algorithm eats those views up and sends them into those spaces. We all have a responsibility to challenge those prejudices and behaviours, especially when we have important political debates about issues such as immigration, in which people too often conflate immigration, race and crime. I for one do not want racism to become normalised once more, or for people to feel that staying silent is easier than standing up for others. We all need to call it out whenever we see it. Moving forward, it is important that we in this place reflect on the scandals of the past that have left dark scars on our society. From Windrush to Grenfell and the crisis in maternity care, those scandals represent individuals and communities who have been let down, where systemic discrimination has played no small part. Those are individuals whose dignity and rights were disregarded because of failings in the state apparatus. I am proud that the Liberal Democrats are committed to fighting for racial equality, and that means unequivocally condemning racism in all its forms and tackling injustice wherever we see it. It is a shame that my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Josh Babarinde) cannot be here today. I see how much abuse he receives online on social media. When he puts up a post about something he is doing to fight for Eastbourne general hospital, someone will write in the comments section, “Deport.” His response to that is, “There are no direct flights to Eastbourne general hospital, so I can’t do that.” I recognise that the proliferation of abuse that is then liked and shared means that his experience as a black MP is totally different from my experience as a white MP. The abuse he receives is off the scale and totally unacceptable. In the Liberal Democrat election manifesto, we committed to implementing a comprehensive race equality strategy aimed at reducing the disproportionately high maternal mortality rates experienced by black women and eliminating racial disparities in maternal health through a cross-departmental target and strategy. We also want to end the disproportionate use of stop and search and require all police forces throughout the country to adopt ambitious targets for improving the diversity of their workforces. We have also called for the reversal of the voter ID scheme, which disproportionately excludes minorities from democracy, and for all political parties to publish candidate diversity data. We must also tackle discrimination in the use of new technology, beginning with halting the use of facial recognition surveillance, which is much more likely to wrongly identify black people or women. On criminal justice, it is clear that the immense disparity in different ethnicities in our prison population represents a systemic failing across society. As of this year, 12% of the prison population are black, far exceeding the percentage of the general population. That is underpinned by the fact that black defendants receive on average longer custodial sentences than people of other ethnicities for the same crimes. It is clear that much more needs to be done across the system to begin to address those disparities, particularly on diversity and training in the judiciary. The Liberal Democrats tabled amendments to the Courts and Tribunals Bill in that regard. We must implement a new data strategy across the criminal justice system to ensure that capacity meets demand and that we understand the needs of all users, especially victims, vulnerable people and those from ethnic minority backgrounds. Black History Month is a vital opportunity to celebrate the immense contribution that black people make to our lives in Britain. There are those who ask why we need Black History Month; I hear that being said. That is the same argument used by people who say, “Why do we need Pride? Have we not got there?” No, we absolutely have not. What happened in Chichester just this week is a prime example of why it is all the more important to keep highlighting these things year on year. As the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston said, progress is not linear. It is very easy to slip backwards, and we all need to be alive and alert to that. We need to ensure that we represent all the wonderful qualities that we want our country to represent, not those that do not represent what we feel. We must carry on celebrating Black History Month, because we have an immense contribution to celebrate, but it also provides the chance to recognise the scale of the challenge we still face. I am very grateful to the Leader of the House for granting time for this important debate.
As Members have already mentioned the late Jason Arday, I have taken some advice from the Clerk. The Jason Arday case is sub judice, because the inquest has been opened and adjourned. Hon. Members should not refer to that specific case. If they want some more advice, we are here to provide it. I call Abena Oppong-Asare.
Ms Abena Oppong-Asare (Erith and Thamesmead) (Lab)Labour
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I also want to take this opportunity to thank you for hosting Mr Speaker’s Black History Month event last Wednesday. It was good to meet other individuals who have served in the forces or done so much in the community, and the way you brought us all together was really valued. I also thank the Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi), for her kind words, although I thought I should help her to correct the record, because I am sure she meant to say that Ghanaian jollof rice is the best. As we have discussed already, this year’s theme is “Honouring Our Communities.” That means a lot to me personally, given that my parents came to Britain from Ghana. Like many others, they worked really hard to ensure that my siblings and I had the best opportunities —the opportunities that they would have wanted for themselves. Earlier this month I asked people online what they thought I should mention in this debate. Many responded with really helpful suggestions and stories of black Britons who have enriched our communities and helped shape our country. Sadly, however, quite a number responded with racist abuse. I want to be clear that those voices do not represent the overwhelming majority of people in my constituency or across the country. Black History Month is not about division; it is about recognising the people whose contributions have helped build modern Britain. I believe in freedom of speech, robust debate and the exchange of ideas, but I also believe that we need to challenge racism and hatred whenever we encounter it. No one should feel unable to participate in public life because of abuse and intimidation. Without breaching any ongoing investigation, I want to mention Professor Jason Arday’s death. It is a reminder to all of us of how inequality exists. He made history by becoming one of the youngest black professors at the University of Cambridge, and we should not forget that. His story sadly raises the treatment of black people who reach positions of prominence. His family have spoken about the abuse and harassment that he experienced. My thoughts are with his family. Black History Month also reminds us all of how far we have come, and how far we still have to go. That includes tackling inequalities such as the unacceptable maternal mortality gap experienced by black women. Today, I want to focus not on those who seek to divide us, but those who strengthen our communities. I want to pay tribute to some people in my constituency, starting with Michelle Rankin, assistant director for economy and skills at Greenwich council. Michelle has been instrumental in bringing Pride in Place to Thamesmead, to help empower the local community to shape the future of our area. I pay tribute to Benedicta Okpor, a Queen’s nurse who is leading work to amplify the voices of nurses working in social care across south-east London. Through her professional leadership and voluntary work in both the UK and Nigeria, she is an inspiration to many. I also pay tribute to John Okungbaiye, chair of the Pride in Place board, who has co-founded an innovative anti-theft bag and worked with the Prince’s Trust and does a lot of work in the community by being a school governor. Those are just a few of the remarkable people whose contributions deserve recognition. In previous years I have been proud to recognise many others, including members of the Windrush generation and countless black Britons whose service, sacrifice and leadership have strengthened our country. Their stories remind us that black history is British history, which is why Black History Month remains so important—not only to celebrate progress, but to inspire future generations and recognise those whose contributions have helped make Britain what it is today. Like other Members, I want to take the opportunity to reflect on the trailblazers who have opened the doors for people like me: my right hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), the first black woman elected to Parliament; Paul Boateng, Britain’s first black Cabinet Minister, also of Ghanaian descent, who has supported me; and Valerie Amos, the first black woman to serve in Cabinet. I also want to mention one of our new Baronesses, Baroness June Sarpong, who is sitting in the Gallery. I do not think I need to explain any more about her—she is a trailblazer. This is her second week, and I know that she will already have hit the ground running. Welcome, June Sarpong. Valerie’s story is particularly personal to me. She grew up in Bexley, as did I, and I had the opportunity to do work experience with her. Seeing someone like her, from my community, achieving so much really mattered to me. I have spoken about this before, but not everybody knows the story, and I think it is important that we talk about the paths we have taken to get here. When I was at university, I was really thinking about going into politics, and I remember speaking to a careers adviser and saying that I wanted to explore opportunities for going into politics. He laughed in my face and said that the chances of someone like me getting a job in politics were very slim, and not to bother trying. As Members have probably guessed, I am a very stubborn person, and I did not listen to his advice. I have never forgotten that conversation—I feel that it has made me extremely resilient and more determined as a person. When someone tells you that you cannot do something, it just makes you hungry to push to do it. For me, this is also about the future generation and how what we do in our roles inspires them, particularly to get more young people into politics or playing different roles in civic life. I know that I did not get here by myself; people supported me to get here, and I see that reflected in my constituency of Erith and Thamesmead. I see constituents who are doing so much in the community—I have mentioned some of them already—to ensure that we as a country thrive. It is great that that theme is something we are discussing this year. As well as celebrating people who have contributed to Black History Month, it is also important to recognise those people who are making a difference and thinking about the future, and to ensure that when people get opportunities to break barriers, they are treated with dignity and respect. It is not just about representation or getting there; it is about how you treat people. I wanted to put that on record, and also to say that Black History Month should not be just this month; it should be all year round. But the reason we celebrate it this month is that we still have a long way to go before we achieve equality.
I have just noticed that the Serjeant at Arms has entered the Chamber, and I think we all want to notice him. I believe he is our first black Serjeant at Arms, appointed in October 2019—he is hating me saying this, so let us stare at him a little bit longer.
Carla Denyer (Bristol Central) (Green)Green Party
It is a pleasure to speak in today’s debate marking Black History Month, and I thank the Minister for opening the debate with a speech so powerful that it gave me the chills. I do not think that is because I might have caught a cold off her on Monday, although that may be the case. In my maiden speech, I talked about how the story of my home city, Bristol, cannot be disentangled from the UK’s shameful and immoral history of colonialism and slavery. That is a history that we cannot and must not turn away from. Bristol merchants financed over 2,000 slaving voyages between 1698 and 1807. These ships carried over 500,000 enslaved Africans from Africa to face slave labour in the Americas. This shameful trade is an ongoing stain, and it is why my party backs slavery reparations. Since 2020, we have supported the idea of a UK Government-backed all-party parliamentary commission of inquiry for truth and reparatory justice, aligned with the United Nations frameworks, to address the legacy of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and colonialism. I am proud to say that my city also backs that call following a motion brought by my former colleague, Green Councillor Cleo Lake, five years ago. This is work that I hope to continue to push on as a member of the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan reparations. The UN’s declaration earlier this year, which said that the trafficking of enslaved Africans is the “gravest crime against humanity” and called for reparations as a “concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs”, is therefore very welcome. I hope this strong UN stance will encourage the UK Government to mark Black History Month by acknowledging the inhumane crimes that Britain inflicted on African people for centuries, and the ongoing impact of those crimes on the global south today. My constituency, Bristol Central, is home to a blue plaque at the Seven Stars inn in Redcliffe that marks how Thomas Clarkson, an anti-slavery activist, together with the landlord of the Seven Stars, collected testimonies from sailors in 1787 that were used as evidence in Parliament. These statements played a role in the passing of the Slave Trade Act 1807, which eventually led to the end of the transatlantic slave trade. Fast-forwarding 150 years, we have already heard extensively today about the 1963 Bristol bus boycott, which was a landmark moment in race relations in the UK. On the same day that Martin Luther King gave his famous “I have a dream” speech in the US, the Bristol Omnibus Company agreed to end its racist hiring practices following a successful boycott campaign. As we have heard, the boycott was widely cited as a turning point for racial justice in the UK and ultimately led to the Race Relations Act 1965. Bristol’s more recent history saw 15,000 Black Lives Matter supporters gather in the city in 2020 and the toppling of a statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century slave trader who is believed to have transported about 80,000 men, women and children from Africa to the Americas between 1672 and 1689. That statue, in its damaged state, is now displayed in a glass case in the M Shed Museum, in my constituency, where it is surrounded by some of the placards held by protesters on the day it was toppled. Bristol city council’s culture team say this about the exhibit: “This is not erasing history, this is recording history. History isn’t something that can remain static and preserved—that moment was history in action.” Those words feel particularly salient to this debate, because in celebrating those people in our communities whose contributions are all too often unseen, we are—as Cherron Inko-Tariah MBE, the editor of Black History Month UK Magazine , puts it—also writing history. We are making the history that we want recorded, and keeping it alive. To that end, I want to give a special shout-out to one of the many people making black history in Bristol today: the first lord mayor of Bristol to come from the Somali community, Councillor Yassin Mohamud. Yassin brings his experience as a refugee, his experience as a member of the black and minority ethnic community, and his work representing one of Bristol’s more deprived areas to the role of lord mayor. As he said shortly before taking up the post, his focus is on unity “to bring people together, to celebrate the diversity and strength of our city, and to ensure that every community feels recognised and valued.”
Adam Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)Labour
I am enjoying listening to the hon. Lady. I do not agree with everything she has said, but I will touch on that if I catch your eye later, Madam Deputy Speaker. Will the hon. Lady extend her tribute to the current Lord Mayor of Bristol to my noble Friend Lord Rees of Easton in the other place, who has set an amazing example as a black leader in local government?
I will indeed. The now Lord Rees, who was the first black mayor of Bristol and one of the first in Europe, also featured in my maiden speech, and I recognise the great contribution that he made to our city. Finally, I want to highlight the campaign launched last year for Bristol to become the UK’s civil rights capital. The fact that two Members from outside Bristol have already told the story of the city’s pivotal role in British black history supports the case for that very strongly. The campaign brings together academics, business leaders and politicians, including Lord Rees. I will quote directly from one of the campaign’s lead organisers, Julz Davis. He said: “Bristol has never waited for permission to lead. This city has shown the country what change looks like. Activism has always been the lifeblood of systemic change here.” Black History Month is a much-needed chance to remember the importance of systemic change and how many people are making that change happen. To quote Cherron Inko-Tariah again: “There is still so much we do not know. So many stories waiting to be uncovered. So many names waiting to be spoken. So much history waiting to be reclaimed, recorded and shared.” That potential is very alive in this Chamber today, in my home city of Bristol and across our communities, and I look forward to continuing to work cross-party to help realise it.
Terry Jermy (South West Norfolk) (Lab)Labour
I thank the Minister for her opening remarks, and for her fortitude in delivering them. This year’s Black History Month focuses on honouring our communities, and I want to take the opportunity to bring hon. Members’ attention to the market town of Thetford in my constituency of South West Norfolk. A market town in rural Norfolk may not be the first place that Members think of when considering areas of social and cultural progress in the United Kingdom, but it was in my home town of Thetford that the UK had its first black mayor. Allan Glaisyer Minns emigrated to England from the Bahamas as a child in the mid-1800s, and he began his story in London. After finishing at Nassau grammar school, he began studying medicine at Guy’s hospital, which is not far from here. Before the age of 30, he was already registered with the British Medical Association. Dr Minns moved to join his brother, who was practising medicine in Thetford. I have little doubt that the Norfolk weather did not quite match that of the Bahamas, and I am afraid that Thetford lacked sandy beaches. Regardless, there was something about our town and the community that made him want to stand for mayor. Thetford’s community spirit and cohesion resonated with Dr Minns, because he decided to enter politics and was elected to serve on the town council. He was elected as a councillor in 1903, and he was elected by his peers to become mayor back in 1904. He served for 10 years as a local councillor, as well as serving as a local doctor, and he was elected as the mayor of Thetford twice. I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests: like Dr Minns, I have served as a member of Thetford town council. In my case, I was elected at 22. I am still there, some 19 years later—hon. Members can therefore work out my age. I, too, had the honour of becoming mayor of Thetford back in 2016, and I was proud to wear the same mayoral chain that was worn by Dr Minns all those years earlier.
Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)Labour (Co-op)
I thank my hon. Friend for making an incredible speech and talking about a really trailblazing man in Dr Minns. I think we should all celebrate what he achieved in Thetford; it is a really wonderful story. We heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Ms Oppong-Asare) about her experience of getting involved in politics. Does he share my concerns that, if Dr Minns put himself forward in politics now—with the horrible things that black MPs and black elected officials have to put up with online—it would be very difficult, and does he agree with me that it is the duty of everybody in this House to challenge the vile racism and disinformation that we see online?
Absolutely. I will come to some more recent examples that are less positive, but I absolutely share my hon. Friend’s sentiment. Thetford lays claim to being the third oldest mayoralty in the entire country, and our civic history is truly fascinating, so it is particularly noteworthy that Dr Minns became the first black mayor. It is also worth mentioning that Dr Minns’s sister, Ophelia, was later elected on to the town council—at a time when women could not even vote in parliamentary elections. It shows that the Minns family story is part of our wider history of people who contributed to the life of their community at a time when opportunities to participate in public life were far from equal. Thetford town council pays tribute to Dr Minns’s legacy by showing school groups around our guildhall and introducing them to his story, and like me, they feel amazed and proud. I pay tribute to local councillors such as Annie Blackbourn, Doug Jefferson and Stuart Wright, as well as the staff at Thetford town council, who are working to ensure that there is a statue of Dr Minns on permanent display in Thetford as we approach the 100th anniversary of his death in 2030. Dr Minns’s story reminds us that black history does not exist separately from the history of our towns and villages but is woven into the very fabric of our communities. He was not simply making history by becoming Britain’s first black mayor; he was serving his neighbours, contributing to civic life and helping to shape the future of our community.
Last night, I joined the 1987 Committee, set up by the fantastic Fatima Kamara and her team. As hon. Members can tell from its name, it recognises the year—that historic year—in which the Mother of the House, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), entered this House. It aims to help young black people get those opportunities to get involved in politics and in political and public life. Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating the 1987 Committee on the wonderful work it is doing with young black people to get them into the type of arena that we are in?
I recognise my hon. Friend’s own trailblazing experience as a fellow Member from the eastern region. I pay tribute to him, and I absolutely congratulate the organisation he mentioned. It is really important that these achievements are recognised because, sadly, the story of Dr Minns was forgotten. For a while, it was thought that John Archer, the mayor of Battersea, was Britain’s first black mayor, despite being elected 10 years later. We must talk about and recognise these achievements—although I apologise to my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova)! I hope that mentioning Dr Minns’s story today will help to honour his legacy and highlight the work he did for his community. It is a reminder that democratic public participation belongs to everyone in our communities, and that the contributions of those who came before us should inspire all who follow. It has been a difficult few months for my constituency, particularly for my home town of Thetford, with the violent protests in my community. I absolutely recognise that among those protesting were people with legitimate concerns about immigration—whether that be public safety or the impact on services—but, sadly, many were motivated by racism, and we must call out and denounce that at every opportunity. I similarly condemn those who fan the flames of extremism, particularly those who do so for political gain. Their actions led to black and minority ethnic members of my community feeling unsafe and living in fear—often the fear of being misidentified as an asylum seeker—which resulted in children of mixed heritage, like my 10-year-old niece, being asked at school if she was an asylum seeker. We can and must do better than this. The Government, and the Home Office in particular, need to do far more in relation to community cohesion, particularly in areas such as mine that are close to a former military base that has been identified as a possible site to house asylum seekers, and for communities currently concerned about the dispersal policy.
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that we need to stop politicians from profiting by sharing such views? The hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Rupert Lowe) has declared earnings of over £100,000 from X since being elected to this place, so it pays to say more explicitly appalling things. Does the hon. Member agree with me that we should end that practice entirely?
I absolutely agree—
Order. Before the debate continues, it is etiquette when Members mention other Members in the Chamber to give them prior notice.
I share the concern that the hon. Member has raised. It is clear that there is still a very long way to go to achieve equality. Remembering those pioneers, like Dr Minns and so many of the other people we have heard about today, must go hand in hand with examining the opportunities available to people today. We must ensure that everybody has a fair chance to progress at work, to contribute to public life and to have their voices heard. In my opinion, each act and gesture of tolerance and diversity makes us a stronger and more united country. Black History Month gives us an opportunity to share stories such as those of Dr Minns, and I thank the hon. Members for this opportunity to do so. It gives such stories fair recognition and ensures that future generations are aware of just how far we have come as a society, so that we can keep pushing further.
I call Dawn Butler, who I believe was the first black female Minister. Is that correct?
Oh, that has made my day, Madam Deputy Speaker, because normally it is only my mum who remembers, so thank you so much. As the first black female MP Minister of this country—I was the first black female MP to stand at the Government Dispatch Box—it makes me really proud to see other black female MPs doing the same, such as the Minister for Homelessness, Democracy, Communities and Faith; I thank for her powerful opening speech. I am as proud today as I was last year when I witnessed the speech of my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Ms Oppong-Asare) at that Dispatch Box, and the year before when my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry North West (Taiwo Owatemi) was at that Dispatch Box. Watching generations of women coming after me makes me extremely proud. The only thing I would ask the Government to do is to make sure that this debate is scheduled in the diary every year, so that we do not have this merry-go-round of applying to the Backbench Business Committee and then being told that the debate will be held in Government time. Let us just put it in the diary and have a set date, because this debate is becoming more and more fundamental. As was mentioned earlier, we are witnessing the unapologetic rise of the far right, the rise of racism and the rise of white supremacy. When Reform-led St Helens council shamefully announces that it will no longer formally observe Black History Month, we know that the rest of us have to make sure that we observe it, put it in the books and fight to ensure that black history is not erased, because black history is indeed a part of British history. I want to start by acknowledging the man, who was mentioned earlier, who brought Black History Month to the UK—Mr Akyaaba Addai-Sebo. We owe him a great debt of gratitude for his tireless work to ensure that black history, black achievement and black identity are not erased, but celebrated. The theme this year is “Honouring Our Communities.” Recognising the everyday contributions of black people across the whole UK, whose work often goes unseen, is vital. We have lost many of those people over the last year, and I apologise in advance for the many deserving names that I will not mention: Yvonne Brewster, the pioneer who co-founded Talawa Theatre Company; Gerlin Bean, the British black feminist and community organiser; Uriah Rennie, the trailblazing premier league referee; Syd Lawrence, the pioneering black England cricketer; Trevor Toussaint, the British television and theatre actor; and Sonny Blacks, one of the founders of Notting Hill carnival. Some of my personal friends have passed away: one of my closest friends, Kanya King, the British businesswoman and founder of the MOBO—Music of Black Origin—awards, who created that awards ceremony to recognise black music when the major industries did not; Bonnie Greer, the playwright, novelist and critic; Rennick Thomas, affectionately known as Tom, who had a bakery in Forest Gate and on Ridley Road, who was in a bakery war with my dad over who could produce the best hardo bread and bun, and who was my mum’s best friend after my dad died; and, lastly, Professor Jason Arday, who was an exceptional scholar of race and inequality. He joined the faculty of education at the University of Cambridge in 2023, and in August 2026 he was hounded to his death, the hunt started by a self-proclaimed eugenicist and white supremacist. It would be incomplete to honour our communities without acknowledging what has been taken away. Last Saturday, I attended a reparations conference organised by my hon. Friend the Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill (Bell Ribeiro-Addy) and it made me think of something. Madam Deputy Speaker, if I stole your Rolex watch, would it become mine? Of course not. If I gave that Rolex watch to my daughter, would it become hers? Of course not. A gift does not erase a theft. If she passed it to her child, would it suddenly become a family heirloom? Of course not. Time does not turn theft into ownership. Now imagine, Madam Deputy Speaker, that your daughter discovers the truth that your watch was stolen. Would she not have every right to ask for that watch back? Suppose I used that stolen watch as collateral to get a bank loan and bought a house, and passed that wealth on to my children? The benefit of that theft would be in my family for generation after generation. Some will say, “But today’s generation did not commit the wrong.” That would be true, but your daughter did not suffer the theft. Others will say, “But the past is the past. Leave it alone.” But if the benefits of the injustice are still being enjoyed, then the consequences are not in the past at all, but are actually in the present. That is the principle behind reparations. It is about recognising that the passage of time does not transform an injustice into a rightful inheritance. If time alone can turn stolen property into rightful ownership, what we are actually saying is that stealing is okay—we merely have to wait until people die and hope that the truth is not exposed or told. The issue is not about inherited guilt, but about inherited benefit and inherited loss. If we would not accept that argument for a stolen watch, why should we accept it for stolen labour, stolen wealth, stolen land or stolen opportunity? When we look at the world today, we still see the legacy of historic injustice. Across Africa and the Caribbean, the effects of centuries of exploitation remain visible. We can all recognise the iconic Louis Vuitton pattern, but where did it originate from? The Adinkra symbols of the Akan people of Ghana predate many luxury brands by centuries. These are symbols rich in meaning and history. The oldest surviving Adinkra cloth is kept in a place that holds the largest collection of stolen property in the world: the British Museum. Where is the line between appreciation and appropriation? Appreciation acknowledges and credits the source; appropriation too often profits from culture while erasing its origins. Exploiting indigenous cultures for profit should not be normalised or accepted. That is why the theme of honouring our communities is so important. The Maasai Intellectual Property Initiative is so powerful, because it was established to address the unauthorised use of Maasai branding. It enables businesses to work with the Maasai tribe ethically, ensuring that the benefits flow back to the Maasai people. It is so important in this debate, when we are honouring communities, that we give back, especially what is stolen and what is owed. Madam Deputy Speaker, I do not just talk the talk; I walk the walk. I created the Bernie Grant leadership programme, the £1 student fees to get young people engaged in politics, and the parliamentary black caucus, because change will not happen without action. Sometimes this period of time feels extremely overwhelming when we think about the rise of racism and the far right, and all that is thrown at us. The civil rights activist John Lewis said: “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week or one year. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or even many lifetimes, and each one of us, in every generation, must do our part.” So, my question to those of us here and to the country is: have you done your part in this struggle? For me, I want to see the end to racist practices and structures in different institutions all across the world in my lifetime. We should not be afraid to call out wrongdoing. Whether it is violence against women and girls, paedophiles, class war, genocide or racism, we need to call it out so we can end it in our lifetime. John Lewis also said: “Never be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble”. I am known to get in a little bit of trouble from time to time. I may have got into trouble earlier; we will soon see. But I show up. International Women’s Day debates—I show up. International Men’s Day debates—I show up. Debates on white working class boys—I show up. LGBTQI+ debates—I show up. If we are going to beat the racists, we have to show up. We have show up for each other. We have to speak out and show up to protect black and brown people. We have to show up for them when they are being abused and discriminated against online. We have to show up. When we show up and when we unite, we will never be defeated.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)Labour
Order. Before I call the next speaker, I further remind Members that the Jason Arday case is sub judice, because the inquest has been opened and adjourned. While tributes are welcome and allowed in this debate, Members should not stray into the circumstances on contributory factors to his death.
I thank the Minister for her powerful opening remarks. It is a pleasure to follow my near neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler). As we have heard, the theme of this year’s Black History Month is “Honouring Our Communities”. It is all about ordinary Black British people who have done the rarely celebrated work of building this nation: of working in our factories, in the NHS, and in so many other jobs that helped this country to grow. It is about how they stood up to everyday racism, often on a daily basis, and yet pushed on for their children and their grandchildren to be able to succeed. I would love to tell that story today: of the black parents in Ealing Southall who refused to accept racism in schools and so sent their kids to supplementary schools to give them a fair chance in life; of the black workers who joined trade unions to fight racism at work; and of the black tenants who campaigned for fair access to housing. But, Madam Deputy Speaker, on 26 January this year we lost my constituent Eric Huntley, a giant of the black community, so it is only right that I pay tribute to him today. Eric is not quite an unsung hero. In fact, there is a special Nubian Jak Community Trust blue plaque above his home at 141 Coldershaw Road, which he would proudly show me whenever I passed. But he is not sung about anywhere near enough, and I hope to help rectify that today. Eric and his wife Jessica, who died in 2013, were lifelong activists and educators. Eric came here from Guyana in 1957, and Jessica followed in 1962 when they had saved enough to pay for her passage over. In 1968, they founded one of the UK’s first black-led publishing companies, Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications, from a printing press in their front room on Coldershaw Road. In 1975, they opened a bookshop specialising in black literature at 5A Chignell Place in West Ealing. Eric described it as “an oasis in the desert of west London” for the black community. With few other community spaces, it became an important cultural and academic hub, providing a drop-in centre for parents, students and teachers. The bookshop also offered career advice and help with job applications. It became known globally, with visits from black authors and artists from around the world. The bookshop, however, also came under attack from the National Front, with racist graffiti, smashed windows and excrement pushed through the letter box. Jessica told the story of how the Ku Klux Klan made threatening phone calls in which they were told they had seven days to pack up the shop and leave, and were left in no doubt about the consequences if they did not. But Eric and Jessica would not be intimidated. With other bookshop owners, the Huntleys founded Bookshop Joint Action, and campaigned against racist threats in Ealing and across London, drawing national press coverage and forcing the police to safeguard the bookshop. Eric and Jessica were key figures in the Caribbean Education and Community Workers Association, which was set up in response to the racist labelling of large numbers of black children as “educationally subnormal”. They were involved in the supplementary school system, which was almost a parallel education system that black communities were forced to set up to stop their children’s life chances being damaged by racism in the school system. They were also part of the Black Parents Movement, which campaigned against laws that allowed police to stop, search and arrest people on suspicion of intent to commit a crime, which were used disproportionately against young black people in the ’70s and ’80s. The last time I saw Eric was at a poetry event last year run by CACE—the Caribbean and African cultural centre in West Ealing that is very much a part of his legacy. He was as full of life and opinions as ever, and I know he would have lots to say about our new Prime Minister if he were still around. Eric’s death in January, at the age of 96, is truly the end of an era, but his and Jessica’s work in building a community for black people across west London will never be forgotten—from the blue plaque on the house on Coldershaw Road where they started out, to murals of them both on the windows of West Ealing community library. Most importantly, their spirit lives on in every young black Briton in Ealing Southall today who says, “I refuse to shut up. I refuse to go away. I refuse to accept things as they are.” I hope that this House will join me in honouring not just our communities but Eric Huntley, a true west London legend whose warmth, activism and determination continue to shape the lives of black Britons today.
I congratulate the Minister on persevering through her speech; she was croaky in voice but stood tall at the Dispatch Box, and we are all proud of her. I am grateful that the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Joy Morrissey), is still here, as she is always the very example of courtesy to me. We enjoyed the festive tune earlier, but I think she ought to choose “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentleman” for her alarm, as there is talk of comfort and joy in that song. I also thank the hon. Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) for her contribution. We have heard excellent speeches from colleagues across the House. I do not really like germs, and there has been lots of coughing and sniffing in this debate. I think my hon. Friend the Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra) needs some form of medication. I wish all colleagues who have the sniffles a speedy recovery. I hope I do not upset some Members who are not here by pointing out that I am English. I am a rare breed, in that I am a black British man, born and raised in England with English roots, and I am a Member of this House. I have said this before, and I will say it again: each and every person who lives, learns and works in our United Kingdom—each and every person who moved here to work in our national health service, on our railways, in our schools and on our building sites—deserves to have their issues, concerns and needs heard, listened to and celebrated. I am proud to be English, proud to be British, a proud son of a Zimbabwean-born Dad and the proud grandson of a Jamaican who came to our country in the 1940s to help us win world war two, as many other black and Asian men did. Indeed, many came to help in both great wars and have done so in the years since. I am proud to be a black British Member of Parliament, born and raised in England with a constituency in the county of Staffordshire, which has been home to my family for approaching a century. As the House knows, I am the first black man to represent a seat anywhere in the west midlands in this House. I do not say that because I am obsessed with myself, I promise—
Callum Anderson (Buckingham and Bletchley) (Lab)Labour
Will my hon. Friend give way on that point? [Laughter.]
I say that because I do not want anyone else to have to say it. I will happily give way to my hon. Friend. [Laughter.]
indicated dissent.
My hon. Friend should be careful what he wishes for, because he will be caught out if he is not careful! I want it to be normal—to be a given—and for it to happen right across this island home of ours that someone like me can serve in this House. We all know that black history is British history, and that is certainly true in the context of our United Kingdom. That should not be a controversial or difficult thing to say, so I will say it again: black history is British history. I am tired of people who should know better—some who sit in this House—who appear determined to tear our communities apart; people obsessed with division rather than unity; people who profess an empty and meaningless care for and commitment to this country. It is not British to walk by on the other side, and those political leaders who seek to tell us otherwise should know better. Let me also say to some in this House, although I note they are not in the Chamber, “If you have an identity crisis and do not know who you are, if you are unsure how to be comfortable in your own skin, I am really sorry for you, but please do not project your insecurities on to the rest of us. Do not infect our national life with your complete and utter rubbish.” I am proud of who I am and where I am from; I was blessed to be born into a family who made sure that me and my siblings felt that. I am proud of my white English grandmother who had some Irish in her too, of my Jamaican grandfather who made this country his home, of my dad’s parents born in Southern Rhodesia when it was run by this Parliament: I am proud of my Englishness, my African routes and my Caribbean heritage. Nobody—and I mean nobody—is going to make me feel otherwise, tell me otherwise, or make me question that. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”] As we approach Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday in a couple of weeks’ time, when our United Kingdom comes together to reflect and acknowledge the sacrifices of all the men and boys who went to war—and all the women who kept the show on the road at home—nobody in the Chamber today, in any political party, in any community in our country or in any corner of this land should ever forget that we would never have beaten the fascists on the beaches of Normandy or at Gallipoli without the bravery and valour of young men—black, white and Asian. Their bravery won the day. For many of those who returned from the frontline, our United Kingdom became their home. Those black men and women rolled up their sleeves, put their shoulders to the wheel and helped rebuild a nation ravaged by war. As I have acknowledged before, with their skills and smarts, homes were built, our buses were back on the road, railways worked once again—though I say as someone who has to get the Avanti train back to North Staffordshire every Thursday that we could do with more of their railway working today. Our national health service was established, and as a husband to a nurse, that is particularly important to me. Restaurants opened and sold food with spice, seasoning and everything nice; fabric shops and tailors ensured that our country had some of the best dressed people on the world stage, and our United Kingdom bounced back. So much more happened, and we as a country would and could not have done it without the sacrifices and contribution of the black British community. And you know what, Madam Deputy Speaker, it is okay for us to say that. I have said this before to the House, and I will say it again: that does not take away from white people, Asian people or those of mixed heritage. We all have a contribution to make, and we all deserve to have that contribution acknowledged and celebrated. It is that blend, that connection and that understanding that we must use Black History Month this year and every year to hold on to. For me, this is as much about class as it is about race. The black families I represent in Chesterton, Silverdale or Madeley in Newcastle-under-Lyme who moved there to build a life and raise their families have not had the same experiences as people like Kwasi Kwarteng, for example. Those families live in exactly the same economic situations as their white neighbours. We have a wider challenge before us: how do we build an economy that works for all of our people? How do we uplift, enrich and empower all of our people? While I absolutely believe that the contribution made by the black British community must be acknowledged every single day of the year, I welcome the focus that Black History Month provides for all of us to celebrate, enjoy and recognise that. As we celebrate Black History Month, I like to reflect on the promise of our country—to think that my grandfather arrived here on a boat during the war, and here I am today. My grandfather came to this country before Windrush. Everyone who has spoken in this debate has, quite rightly, mentioned Windrush. I do not say this to them, but I say generally that there were black people in this country before 1948. The experiences of my grandfather and the men who came with him on that boat in 1941 made it ever so slightly easier for those who came after them, and it is important that we remember those people, too. My standing here today would not happen in many other parts of the world, but it happened in this, our United Kingdom, and we should never forget that. I am proud of my race, but it does not define me. It inspires me every single day. It has opened doors for me; regrettably, I suspect it has closed a few, too. It allows me to show those who come after me that anything is possible. My hon. Friend the Minister touched on online racism and the fact that some seek to normalise it, as did the hon. Member for Chichester when talking about our friend, the hon. Member for Eastbourne (Josh Babarinde). I have never been so conscious of the colour of my skin as I have been when calling out the racists throwing abuse towards the former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Richmond and Northallerton (Rishi Sunak), and the hon. Members for Eastbourne and for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty). While listening to colleagues, I have been looking through the responses on Twitter to when I called out that racism, and I want to share a couple with the House. I was called “another foreigner” in British politics. I was born here. Boris Johnson, another former Prime Minister, was born in the United States, but I do not think he is called a foreigner. What does that tell us? Another called me a “parasite”. My favourite was being told that “with a surname like that, you cannot be English.” It is a real shame that there are some in our country who have so little going on in their lives that they have the time to talk such garbage. As my near-ish neighbour and hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire (Samantha Niblett) pointed out earlier, no one is born racist. But it is important that I give this snapshot of what happens when someone who looks like me in this House calls out that racism. Racism is not just online; it happens on our streets, too. Look at what we saw earlier this year in Northern Ireland—a place I know well, as my wife is from there and we spend as much time there as we can. The streets of this country saw black and Asian people chased out of their homes and hospital workers hiding in the boots of their white neighbours’ cars because they were scared they would not get home. [ Interruption. ] In 2026, that is an utter disgrace. It is not who we are, and it must never be who we become. [Interruption.] This is quite good going for me—I did actually cry when I gave my speech at my wedding, so this is an improvement. I spoke for 28 minutes when I got married, though, so I will have to see how tolerant you will be of me this afternoon, Madam Deputy Speaker. Over the past decade, I have had the honour of attending Black History Month events at local schools, churches and community hubs. I have listened to children speak of their lived experiences, good and bad, and heard pensioners recall the stories of their ancestors. The overwhelming feeling I come away with every year at the end of this month is how proud we should all be of the black British contribution made to our communities. There has been talk of reparations in this debate and in recent weeks, ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Antigua. I am the descendant of slaves, and I want to share my view. I say this, as I said at the beginning of my remarks, as someone who is very proud of and aware of who he is, where he is from and what he is on earth to do. Who do we pay? What value do we put on the lives of those disgracefully, immorally and forcibly removed from their homes? Where does it stop? I know where I think it can start: with a British Government who take the Commonwealth seriously and who stop lumping together the Africa and development briefs in the Foreign Office. We have to stop looking at our relationship with Africa through the prism of making ourselves feel better with a development policy approach—there is more to Africa and our relationship with Africa than just development. It starts by ensuring that we reflect on the legacy of the British empire and our collective and complicated history and by properly and effectively trading with the Caribbean and Africa—as much as I love Canada, Australia and New Zealand, we must do more and go further. We should be establishing genuine and real links between our leaders, and I hope that my more senior colleagues in government will lead by example. I want to see more ministerial visits to the former colonies—I say this word consciously—because it is on those visits that we can show our equal partners the respect that they deserve. That would go so much further in acknowledging the contribution that our forefathers made and that the black community is making today, and it would show that this Government get it. When my right hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield (Andy Burnham) became Prime Minister, I was asked to become Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Education. I was told that that, on paper, is the first step on the ministerial ladder—in reality, on occasion it feels a little different. But it is an important role, because through it, I am determined to ensure that everyone who needs the skills to succeed is able to get them, that everyone who wants to seize the opportunities before them is able to do so, and that we give our young people—all our young people—the tools to succeed and thrive. I said in my maiden speech that my becoming a parliamentarian “was not inevitable, but it was possible.” —[ Official Report , 29 July 2024; Vol. 752, c. 1122.] The fact that I am a parliamentarian tells me how far the black community has come—from my grandfather getting off the boat in a cold Liverpool in 1941 to me this morning, late, getting off the tube at Westminster station and taking my seat on these green Benches. The fact that I am in Parliament reminds us of what we need to do to lift everybody up, and is a reminder of the age-old value that I have repeated on many occasions: anything can be possible in this United Kingdom of ours. We all know that the black community has made an unbelievable contribution to the life and soul of this country, from music and the arts to film and sports—and, yes, to food, although the hon. Member for Beaconsfield mentioned the House of Commons jerk chicken earlier, and let me tell her: that is not jerk chicken. There are a couple of places we can go if she wants to taste some. Having said that, my white English grandmother was born and raised in a white working-class family in Birkenhead in the 1920s, but after having been with my grandfather for half a century, her rice and peas was second to none. I just wish she had passed that down to all of her 10 daughters—
And sons.
No, no—we will talk about that later. [ Laughter. ] Some things are complicated. Under this Prime Minister, there is a renewed determination and focus to bring our country together, to tackle injustice wherever we find it, and not to let the haters win. Let us get on with it.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Clapham and Brixton Hill) (Lab)Labour
It is always a pleasure to speak in the Black History Month debate. It is educational, it is inspiring, and while I know of many of the black Britons we celebrate, I always love hearing about those I have never heard about before, especially when Members tell us about black Britons from their own constituencies. That is what makes this debate matter.
Earlier, Madam Deputy Speaker mentioned the Serjeant at Arms. I hope the hon. Lady will forgive me for intervening to pay tribute to the Serjeant at Arms, because he was educated in my constituency at Bishop Luffa school. I want to put on the record how proud Bishop Luffa school is of how far he has come.
We are all extremely proud of the Serjeant at Arms. I start by congratulating my neighbour and hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi) on her powerful opening speech. I hope that there is some pepper soup in her future to help with her cold. I join her in paying tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Ms Oppong-Asare), who has, in our time in this place, led this debate on a number of occasions. I also pay tribute to her because earlier this week I read out a list of names and inadvertently missed her off it. She may wonder why this is the fourth time I am apologising. Perhaps it is the death stare she gave me on the day, or perhaps it is how she has looked at me from out the side of her eye ever since. It might be because I cannot allow the idea that I would shadily forget her, of all people. She is my fellow British-Ghanian MP, of whom I am extremely proud. When we err publicly, we should atone in the same way. I put on record that my hon. Friend has been a huge support to me, particularly in the past few months, as I have dealt with a challenging time as the Member of Parliament for the Arday family. I know her well enough to know that she will look at me from out the side of her eye until at least 2027, which is not too far away, but I hope that this House now knows that she is somebody who I celebrate in my community. As we celebrate our friends and community members, it is important that we do not lose sight of the dangerous times that we live in. Online hate is rising, and foreign billionaires such as Elon Musk pour time, money and energy into far-right movements, such as the one led by Tommy Robinson. Racism is no longer whispered; it is amplified, monetised and making its way into our politics. That is why this debate is not a nicety, but a necessity. Despite what some in the Reform party would like to suggest, black Britons are British, our history is British history and our contributions are equal to those of other Britons and equally worthy of celebration. Before the online trolls pile in with the inevitable, “Why do we have Black History Month? What about White History Month?”, I remind them that had they paid attention in school, they would know that the history of other Britons has dominated our curriculum and that happens all throughout the year. We have a Black History Month as just one month to honour those who were clearly written out of our history books. Black History Month is intended to exist until such a time as those Britons are truly incorporated. It is a means to an end. It was never intended to be an end in itself. We say that black history is British history simply as a call to action. Black History Month was first marked in October 1987, as we have heard repeatedly, and it was specifically done on the 150th anniversary of Caribbean emancipation. It was organised by Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, a Ghanaian-born special projects officer at the Greater London council. He has been trying tirelessly, particularly as we move to the 40-year celebration next year, to get in touch with Ministers, the Mayor of London and others to make sure that he is included in the celebrations. I hope Members have heard that and will encourage that, as he was the person who led on this. I was pleased to hear the Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Joy Morrissey), saying that black history is British history during her opening speech, because I understand from comments left on my own social media that that is not the view of everybody in the House. I posted a video of me speaking during Black History Month perhaps a couple of years ago, making that specific point that black history is British history. Her colleague commented that that was not the case. They did not make a racist comment, but they made a point about how it was divisive. On the same post, I received a lot of racist abuse—some of a kind that I had not necessarily seen in that volume before. I had people calling me the N-word, people telling me to eff-off and go back to where I came from, and people sending monkey photographs. All those sorts of things show just how turbocharged things are. The hon. Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) said that things seem to be going backwards, and I think we need to keep an eye on it. As we look forward to the 40-year celebration of Black History Month next year, I hope a lot more effort is put into challenging racism, right from the top in this House. We have to remember that Black History Month began as an act of resistance, a way to challenge racism and inspire young people, and a way to repair the record. Today it is a fixture in our national calendar, with thousands of events every October. That is why we find that some Members are losing their voice because of all those events every October. It became a fixture not by accident, but because campaigners, activists and educators fought for it, and they still do. They make sure that our young people learn things that we were never taught. They lift up names that would otherwise be forgotten, and they push back against those who profit from dividing our communities. Every year, however, black Members are forced to play a guessing game. We look on the Order Paper with no idea whether this month we will be honoured with a debate in this Chamber. While I am pleased that this debate is being held in Government time, Black History Month has happened every October since 1987. That means it is almost as old as me and, as my aunt reminded me last week, I am much older than she thought I was. There is absolutely no reason why this debate should not be a permanent fixture, and I hope that the Minister will take that request to the Leader of the House. We cannot talk about black history without talking about reparations. I say that because the existence of black history is reparatory in itself. I pay tribute to those Members in this House—the first black Members in this House—who made that point repeatedly. There was Bernie Grant MP, who was the first to ask a question in Prime Minister’s questions on it. He was the founder of the UK reparations movement. Our Mother of the House, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), has led many meetings in Parliament on this issue, including when I worked for her. Lord Paul Boateng continues to lead the charge in the other place on the restitution of artefacts and human remains. My old history teacher, Mr Melvin Smart, passed earlier this year. He said that we study the past to live the present with an eye on the future, and that is just it. Reparations are not meant to be about guilt, but repair; looking at what we did wrong and attempting to fix it. It is not meant just to be about money, but that is what always happens. We talk about it in financial terms, and we talk about paying. We talk about who gets paid and all the things that can easily be slammed down, instead of talking about all the things that we could move forward with.
I thank my hon. Friend for her incredible conference last week, which saw thousands of people attend, and the debates we had. One of the signs that resonated for me, in terms of reparations, was “First stop the harm”. Does she agree that that is a fundamental part of reparations?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The idea of reparatory justice is to acknowledge that the reason we have to have a month even to celebrate black history is that we have not addressed the harm. We have not gone about repairing all the things that are wrong, including in our education system. We talk about all the different elements of discrimination that black people face in this country, and that is because we have not gone about repairing those institutions that lead to that discrimination. She is absolutely right about that. We need to make people understand that reparations cannot possibly just be about money. Money is perhaps the smallest part of it, because there would be no point in giving any individual or any country a whole heap of money if we were not first going to repair the institutions and the relationships, because otherwise things would not change. That is the reality of the situation, and I think people are beginning to realise that. That is why there has been a huge move forward this year with the campaign globally for reparations. In March, the United Nations General Assembly declared the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans as “the gravest crime against humanity”. That was 123 nations declaring that. In Accra, Governments and campaigners have gathered to decide what comes next. The Jamaican Government gave a petition to the King, which has now been referred to the Privy Council. CARICOM—the Caribbean Community—has revised its 10-point plan. In the UK, we had our largest conference ever on reparatory justice, with grassroots campaigners, scholars, parliamentarians and Heads of State speaking, all with one demand: understanding where a country like ours built its wealth, why that led to the discrimination faced by people in terms of enslavement, and asking that as a country we first apologise and then seek to do what we can to repair the damage. That can be done in a number of ways, including education—what we are doing right now is a form of reparatory justice—and returning artefacts, as was discussed, or even just human remains. Some hon. Members may remember that earlier this year I had a ten-minute rule Bill when we found that numerous human remains are being held in boxes or sold on auction sites, and many of those have come from colonial times. It is a disgusting practice. To deny peoples of African descent dignity even in death points to the discrimination they still face. It is so important that this movement can no longer be ignored; it cannot be ignored by the Government or by the House. We need to think as a country about how we will go about the work of repair. Black History Month cannot be only for talking about these issues and perhaps celebrating, as we have throughout the debate, although that is really important. It must also be about honesty and what we are still getting wrong. This year, our community lost Professor Jason Arday, the youngest black professor in Cambridge’s history, my constituent and my friend. How he died is a matter for the coroner—I will say nothing that gets in the way of that—but how he was treated is a matter for all of us. It is not right that we have not been given the opportunity to discuss that. Nearly 30,000 people stood in Trafalgar Square for Jason and vigils were held across the country. The public did not stay silent, yet when a few weeks ago at business questions I stood to ask the House why it had not discussed him, I was asking a question that I should never have had to ask in the first place. The House has debated other issues in relation to press conduct—it has done so for Milly Dowler, Lucy Meadows, Caroline Flack and others—and Jason deserves no less. I put it to the Government that it is still not too late for them to come to the House with a statement. We cannot stand here every October and celebrate black excellence and then look away when black excellence is torn down in front of us. We cannot honour the names in the history books and ignore those being dragged through the newspapers today. Celebration without reflection is just performance, and we are no one’s minstrels. Those who are good at maths will know that next year marks the 40th anniversary of Black History Month in the UK. Plans are already under way, with resources being prepared for schools and communities across the country. Again, I encourage the Government and the Mayor of London to be in touch with the founder of Black History Month in the UK, Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, and his team, who really want input into the conversation and the plans we have.
My hon. Friend and I have known each other for a long time, but I think this is the first time I have intervened on her—this is quite something, thinking back to when we first met. She makes a really important point about engagement with the Mayor of London and the Government. May I, through her, encourage local authorities up and down our United Kingdom to engage? I think of the Staffordshire Black Business Network in my community, which can play a really important role in helping ensure that we acknowledge that 40th anniversary in as effective a way as we can.
I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. He is right: that should be the case, and the Government should be leading the charge by providing resources to others and supporting them in doing so. As I said, those 40 years deserve a momentous celebration. I hope that when the Minister responds she will tell us exactly how the Government intend to mark the anniversary. I hope that the celebration will be honest about the whole of our history, with the pain, the resistance and the repair.
Olivia Bailey (Reading West and Mid Berkshire) (Lab)Labour
It has been a real privilege to listen to so many powerful speeches this afternoon. My hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) reminded us to ask the question, “Have you done your part?” and told us never to be afraid to make noise, which are really important points. My hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) reminded us that black history is correctly British history. My hon. Friend the Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill (Bell Ribeiro-Addy) just gave a really powerful speech, reminding us of the stark reality today, where we find that racism is not just whispered but amplified. As this is my first speech in the Chamber as the newly elected Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, I would like to start by paying tribute to my predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen). She is a brilliant campaigner who in her time as Chair shone a light on critical issues and secured significant policy change. Her work on bereavement leave for pregnancy loss in particular leaves a lasting legacy. In such debates, I always admired the way in which she shared stories that are not told often enough in this place, often from her own constituency. Therefore, when preparing for this important debate on Black History Month, I decided to spend some time looking in the royal Berkshire archives to tell one story from Reading’s black history. I came across a man called Harvey De Pass. Harvey arrived on the HMT Empire Windrush in June 1948. After a brief dalliance with Staffordshire, he and his family moved to Reading. Harvey took up the role of Reading’s first community relations officer at the Reading council of community relations and spent years serving our community, in particular working with local schools. In October 1970, Harvey organised a conference entitled, “Children in a Mixed Community”. At the time, he told the local paper: “Our children aren’t immigrants…they know no home other than Britain”— words that are just as poignant today. After a decade in that role, Harvey set up a local business, DePass Travel, on the Oxford Road. When Harvey died in 2012, he was remembered by the local community for his big heart and his love of cricket. Harvey is just one example of the wonderful Windrush generation who have brought so much to Reading, with many working in iconic local businesses such as the Huntley & Palmers biscuit factory as well as at our Royal Berkshire hospital and on the town’s bus network. I am reminded of their stories every day when I drive through Reading as I pass the Reading black history mural, which depicts global figures alongside the local heroes who built Reading’s black community. When the site faced redevelopment, which threatened the mural’s future, it was local community campaigners—today’s Harvey De Passes—who successfully ensured that it was preserved for future generations. As we have heard a lot today, the theme of this year’s Black History Month is “Honouring Our Communities.” As other hon. Members have said, this is about not just telling stories but confronting the inequalities that black people in our country continue to face at work, in healthcare and on the streets of our communities. The work of the Women and Equalities Committee shows how much more we have to do in that regard. The Committee’s work on health shows that black women are still more than twice as likely to die in childbirth as white women, more likely to experience life-threatening complications, more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit and more likely to give birth preterm and to lose a baby to stillbirth. Black people are almost four times more likely to experience homelessness, and experience worse outcomes as they progress through the homelessness system. In the workplace, it is more difficult to progress and there are more barriers. Throughout all the Committee’s work. there is one terrible constant: wherever people are adversely affected—be that by policies, attitudes or actions—those impacts are disproportionately worse for people who are black. That is why, as Chair of the Committee, I am determined to use our platform to hear from black voices on the issues that matter, to ensure that the Government listen, and to hold the Government to account on the promises they have made to the black community, whether on ethnicity pay gap reporting, improved maternal care, or ensuring that those affected by the Windrush scandal receive the support and compensation they are owed, because commitments are meaningful only when they lead to change. Our history is important, but honouring our communities means that we must actively confront inequality to truly commemorate the contributions of those who have made progress. I look forward to building on the Committee’s important work and ensuring that we continue to challenge inequality wherever we find it.
I call the shadow Minister.
Rebecca Smith (South West Devon) (Con)Conservative
I have thoroughly enjoyed sitting through the debate this afternoon. Last year I listened to just some of the debate, as I could not be in for the whole time. It has been a really enjoyable afternoon, and some powerful points have been made. I will reflect on a few before I get to the main body of my speech. The first thing I want to talk about is the role of pioneers in the black community in Britain—none more significant than the right hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), who has been mentioned by so many Members, including, first, by the Minister. I was reminded of how important pioneers have been to the House of Commons. I am an MP for Plymouth, and in 1919 the first female MP to take her seat was Nancy Astor, who also represented Plymouth. It was 68 years before there was a female black MP. Putting it in that context highlights the work that the right hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington has done. The hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra) spoke about Windrush and its role in our education system. Probably about 15 years there was an exhibition at the Southbank Centre; I was living in London at the time, and that was the first time that I really engaged with the story of Windrush. As part of the shadow education team, I know that talking about an entire British history is incredibly important. I studied history myself, and always looked particularly at the immigration history of the United Kingdom. The hon. Member for Feltham and Heston mentioned the role of black footballers today. It would be remiss of me not to use that as a hook to mention that the first man to be selected to play for England was part of the Plymouth Argyle football team. Due to the racism he experienced in the 1920s, although he was selected for England he was not then allowed to play. But while playing for Plymouth Argyle—indeed, he captained the team—he scored 137 goals in 400 games. It is good to get Jack Leslie’s name on the record once again. I found the contribution from the hon. Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Ms Oppong-Asare) particularly inspiring, especially the story of resilience she told. Something similar was said to me early on in my career. Someone said that I never win people over when I speak publicly. Well, I hope that after my speech this afternoon, people—at least those in this Chamber—will disagree with that comment. Regardless of our race, resilience is something that most of us have had to build up to get here. I think that is incredibly important to mention. We also heard speeches from the hon. Members for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller), for Bristol Central (Carla Denyer), for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan), for South West Norfolk (Terry Jermy)—with that gentle mayoral competition that he mentioned—and for Brent East (Dawn Butler). All the points made by those Members were particularly important. The hon. Member for Brent East mentioned the role of stolen labour. That is not something that I will touch on directly in my speech, but it is part of the theme of commemoration that we need to embrace going forward. The people who fought for this country have not always been remembered for the role that they played. The hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) made a particularly powerful speech that prompted me to remember two midwives I know well in Plymouth who are of Caribbean heritage. They came over here and served the city of Plymouth for many decades, delivering many babies. It is a real privilege to be able to mention Liz and Yvonne today. Right across our country, we have stories of people who have served—people who came from far-flung places and made the United Kingdom their home. Finally, we heard from the hon. Members for Clapham and Brixton Hill (Bell Ribeiro-Addy) and for Reading West and Mid Berkshire (Olivia Bailey). It has been a pleasure to hear everyone’s contributions this afternoon. It is a privilege to respond to this interesting and inspiring debate on behalf of the official Opposition. We have heard many times this afternoon how the theme of Black History Month 2026 is “Honouring Our Communities” —sharing inspiring stories of black British life. I believe that there is no better way to do that than by reflecting on the lives of those men and women from the Commonwealth who served during the first and second world wars. Anyone who knows anything about me, right back to my maiden speech, will know that I had the privilege of working for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission before I was elected—indeed, I declare an interest as chair of the APPG for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Commemoration. I hope Members will forgive me for using my time to talk about this, but I think it is an incredibly important story that we should be telling. As I am sure Members know, the allied forces were comprised of many nations, including, importantly, a significant number of what are now Commonwealth countries. The imperial forces, as they were known, saw personnel serving together from India, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. In addition, serving under those six flags were men and women from the West Indies and other African nations such as Rhodesia, Nigeria and Kenya. Indeed, the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme told us of his grandfather, who would have been one of those men who came from Rhodesia to serve— [ Interruption. ] Jamaica, sorry. But there was also family from Rhodesia—I was listening. More than 700,000 black Africans served in the first world war, with tens of thousands more coming from the Caribbean, and over half a million black and mixed-ethnicity individuals served in the second world war. Many of those individuals are commemorated in places like Plymouth’s naval memorial on Plymouth Hoe. There are tales of black and mixed-ethnicity servicemen and women in many theatres worldwide, from frontline first world war combat in east Africa and the middle east, to labour and support units working worldwide, to action in Burma during the second world war, to the merchant navy and planes soaring in the skies with the Royal Air Force. It is the role of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to commemorate each man and woman who lost their life serving in the Commonwealth forces with no distinctions. Each casualty should be commemorated by name on a headstone or memorial. Each casualty should have a single point of commemoration. Headstones and memorials should be permanent, and, importantly, headstones should be uniform; it does not matter where somebody was from, we cannot tell by looking at the shape of the headstone—instead we have to go and read their story. There should be equality of treatment for war dead, irrespective of rank or religion. This means that right across the world, in 153 countries, war dead are commemorated. I will use my brief time this afternoon to highlight some of the black Britons who were included in the British forces who fought in the first and second world wars. There are many stories of the contributions of black Britons who served so faithfully during both world wars. The examples that I wish to share can be found on a new online portal hosted by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, where families and historians can share the stories of those recorded on war graves and memorials across the world. It is called the For Evermore project, and I encourage anybody who has a story or wants to advertise the project in their constituency to do so, because ultimately, by knowing more about the names, we have a much bigger picture of the cost involved in those two wars. I am grateful for those stories, and I have effectively lifted three of them from that portal to tell the House this afternoon. Second Lieutenant Walter Daniel John Tull was one of the British Army’s first black commissioned officers and one of England’s first black professional footballers. Born in 1888 in Folkestone, Walter was orphaned young and brought up in an orphanage in Bethnal Green. Before the war, he played for Tottenham Hotspur and later for Northampton Town, where he remains a club legend. Shortly after the outbreak of the first world war, Walter joined the Footballers’ Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment and fought in the battle of the Somme in 1916. He was a natural leader and in May 1917 was commissioned as an officer—a remarkable achievement, given the prejudices of the time. He was mentioned in dispatches for “gallantry and coolness” while leading his company of 26 men on a raiding party into enemy territory. He returned to France in 1918 and was killed in action on 25 March while leading his men into battle during the German spring offensive. He is commemorated on the Arras memorial to the missing. He was a true pioneer whose military service challenged the racial barriers of his age. Lance Corporal Horace Wilfred Miller from the Leicestershire Regiment was born in Hinckley, Leicester as the eldest of 10 children. His father hailed from St Helena, a British overseas territory off the coast of south-west Africa. Aged 19, Horace joined the Army in January 1913, enlisting with the Shepshed Company of the Fifth Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment. He was sent to France a year later and was known for being a keen musician and singer. Horace was killed on 10 September 1915 by a German sniper in the Ypres salient. Newspaper reports noted that “Miller was a fine man, greatly loved and admired by all his many pals”. Finally, Victor Emmanuel Tucker was born on 22 December 1916 in Jamaica to parents Adrian and Lydia Tucker. Victor emigrated to England in the 1930s, and the Oxford-educated Jamaican qualified as a barrister. In 1940, he was living in Highgate, London with his wife Wilhelmina. He enlisted in the RAF in August 1940 and earned his pilot wings in early 1941. He was also promoted to sergeant at that point. His Spitfire was painted with a yellow island of Jamaica symbol on the nose, representing Victor’s homeland. Sadly, Victor would not survive the war. He was shot down by a Messerschmitt FW109S on a raid over Le Havre in France. The Spitfires were escorting Boston bombers to Le Havre and turned away before the bombing run. By order, they flew a left turn, to which the pilots had protested, as that enabled the Germans to attack from the sun. Victor was one of the RAF pilots shot down in that encounter. His body was never recovered and, as he has no known grave, he is commemorated on the Runnymede air services memorial in Surrey, England.
The shadow Minister is making a thoughtful and appropriate speech, and I thank her for it. I thank her specifically for mentioning Victor’s story. It is one that gives voice to many of the points that have been raised on the Government Benches, and that some on the Opposition Benches could learn from.
I hope that in all the stories I have shared, those men—women will have played a role, too, but in the early days it was often men—did what they did in spite of where they came from, their race and their background. We are incredibly grateful. That is why the Commonwealth War Graves Commission exists: to highlight their contribution. This afternoon I have sought to highlight not just Commonwealth people, but those who fought under the United Kingdom’s flag. They were black British men who served and tragically lost their lives. Many survived, and no doubt they are the family members of many Members in this House, but sadly, the men I have highlighted paid the ultimate price. These stories remind us that black history forms a part of our shared national story. These people came from different places, yet they shared the same values of duty, courage and service. They fought under the same flag, faced the same dangers and made the same ultimate sacrifice. That is why my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition was right to state, during her tenure as Equalities Minister, that the achievements of black Britons “belong to us all, whatever our skin colour.” Black History Month is at its best when it reminds us of what unites us: a shared inheritance and a shared commitment to the country we all call home.
The Minister for Equalities (Satvir Kaur)Labour
It is an honour to close today’s debate. I thank the Minister for Homelessness, Democracy, Communities and Faith for opening the debate and for everything she has done in a personal capacity and in her time here to champion our diverse communities. I thank everyone from across the Chamber for their heartfelt, powerful and thought-provoking contributions. It is rare for this Chamber to come together in this way, and I am pleased that it has done so over an issue as important as this one. I know that Black History Month can at times be viewed as tokenistic, but it is only tokenistic if we allow it to be. I agree that we should mark the 40th anniversary, and that this should be a regular item of Government business. As we heard from the contributions this afternoon from Members who represent communities across our country, Black History Month is an incredible opportunity to honour our diverse communities, pay tribute to the huge contribution they make to our cities, towns and neighbourhoods, and celebrate the success stories that inspire people like me every single day—stories too often left untold. This month’s theme is “Honouring Our Communities”, and I thank Members for doing just that. We pay tribute to trailblazers like Dr Allan Minns, the first black mayor in the UK, who was elected over 100 years ago in rural Norfolk; I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South West Norfolk (Terry Jermy) for telling us his story. We pay tribute to Paul Boateng, the UK’s first black Minister; our first black Serjeant at Arms; Councillor Faduma Mohamed, the Mayor of Ealing; Lord Rees from Bristol; and Yassin Mohamud, the current mayor of Bristol.
Lord Mayor.
The Lord Mayor of Bristol. We pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), who has been mentioned several times in the debate, as the first black woman elected to Parliament. I remember sitting next to her when she became Mother of the House and feeling incredibly emotional. We pay tribute to John Okungbaiye, about whom my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Ms Oppong-Asare) spoke passionately, as she did about others who have contributed in her constituency. As there is an ongoing love-in for my hon. Friend, I just want to add to it. There is a real sisterhood in Parliament, and I have felt that so strongly with my hon. Friend; I thank her for her friendship, support and encouragement. I feel as though the resilience she oozes is slowly seeping into my veins, so I thank her personally for that. We pay tribute to Eric Huntley and the others who were spoken about passionately by my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan); Harvey De Pass, from Reading, who was mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Reading West and Mid Berkshire (Olivia Bailey); and my hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler), for being the first female black Minister in this country and for everything she has done to champion this cause. I pay tribute to the Government’s Race Equality Engagement Group members, who as we speak are all in Liverpool with the Minister for Women and Equalities discussing how we go further in making more meaningful change. I thank Baroness Doreen Lawrence for generally being an inspiration to us all, but also for chairing the group and bringing it together.
Gordon McKee (Glasgow South) (Lab)Labour
Could I add to that illustrious list Andrew Watson, who was the first black international football player when he captained Scotland to a 6-1 victory over England in the late 19th century?
I pay particular tribute to Andrew Watson. I join others in thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra) for her tireless work as the former Minister for Equalities and for her personal support to me in my new role. I pay tribute to the likes of my great-grandad, Gyani Sundar Singh Sagar, who worked closely with local black leaders 50 years ago to help change the law so that bus drivers and those riding motorbikes could do so while wearing turbans and not compromise their faith. In fact, the family home is now owned by a Jamaican family whose dad was a Rasta and only got his job as a bus conductor wearing his locs and hat because of my great-grandad’s campaign. In my home city of Southampton, where our diversity is celebrated and which gave me a sense of belonging growing up, I pay tribute to the likes of Don John, Jayanti Shah, Suki Sitaram and Lou Taylor for their tireless work on race equality. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Tyne (Adam Jogee) and the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for South West Devon (Rebecca Smith), for mentioning our Commonwealth soldiers who too often get forgotten when we talk about the contribution made in our world wars. They helped beat fascism and stood by us throughout it all. We celebrate the likes of Estlyn McFarquhar, a retired midwife whom I met in Bath. She told me that she has delivered thousands of babies, and she was instrumental in setting up a place for ethnic minorities to meet and get support in her neighbourhood.
On the subject of meetings, a second ago the Minister described my constituency as Newcastle upon Tyne—we are Newcastle-under-Lyme. To make up for it, will she come and meet the Staffordshire Black Business Network, which I feel sure would like to see her?
Any excuse to meet the good people of Newcastle, and I will not make that mistake again—I thank my hon. Friend for calling me out on it. In Bath, I met amazing people at Fairfield House who bring older generations together to celebrate their cultures through heritage, art and storytelling. They also make the most amazing food, which I felt compelled to try. We celebrate the fact that over 98% of FTSE 100 companies now have ethnic minority representation on their boards, acknowledging that having diversity at decision-making tables is not only the right thing to do, but good for business as it improves productivity and growth. We celebrate Croydon BME Forum for all it does, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon East (Natasha Irons) for talking passionately about it earlier. We thank those who have taken up the mantle for race equality, accepting that it cannot fall on black communities alone. That has been reflected in Members’ contributions in this debate, including that of the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller), on her important experience in her constituency. We thank the likes of Salisbury museum, which gave local black communities the opportunity to own and narrate their own history, in their own words, on slavery. Black History Month, however, gives us an opportunity not only to reflect on the huge strides made towards race equality, but to acknowledge that the fight is not over. As we have heard today, it is important to highlight where we are falling short and where we must go further, and to accept that we stand on the shoulders of giants and that now our generation owes it to the next generation to pick up the mantle, deal with issues that we thought were left far behind us, take on the next set of challenges and continue the fight for equality. When I was growing up in Southampton’s inner city as the daughter of a market stall trader, my dad taught me to be a grafter, like him—to work harder and to go that extra mile to get the same opportunities as others, because the colour of our skin will hold us back. One of the reasons I am in politics is to ensure I can teach my baby girl, Emmy, and children of colour everywhere that because of the changes our generation made, when you work harder, you go further, because talent, ability and access to opportunities are everywhere, in every community, and the colour of your skin has nothing to do with it. That is why this Government intend to introduce ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting, not as an end in itself but as a means to an end—it moves us towards a fairer chance to get on in life for everyone. My hon. Friend the Member for Feltham and Heston asked for an update, and I am pleased to report that we are moving at pace and keen to get parliamentary time as soon as possible. I pay tribute to the likes of Change the Race Ratio and others who have campaigned on this issue for a number of years; I saw at first hand the important work they do earlier this month. In health, the Amos review shone a light on the shameful discrepancies faced by ethnic minority women in maternity care—a service that many of us know only too well needs to show up for you, whoever you are. I am pleased that in response, as well as announcing the creation of the UK’s first ever maternity and neonatal commissioner to hold the system to account, this Government have committed to the national roll-out of the perinatal equity and anti-discrimination programme. This will tackle unacceptable inequalities in care and outcomes, particularly for black and Asian women, those from deprived backgrounds and other marginalised groups. Hate crime and racism were sadly a common theme of the debate. I pay tribute to organisations that tackle those issues across the country, and particularly Stand Against Racism & Inequality—an amazing Bristol charity that I visited recently, which does the most inspiring work supporting victims of racial abuse and going into schools to give children a sense of belonging. The truth is that there are forces out there that seek to divide us and pit one community against another, but in reality, when we rise, we do so together. There are forces out there that will tell you that you are English only if your skin is a certain colour or you are from a certain race. Well, I am here to tell you that they are wrong—they were wrong in the ’30s, they were wrong in the ’60s, and they are wrong now. They will never succeed in dividing this great country—not then, not now—because our diversity is our strength. It has made us who we are today: resourceful, skilled, vibrant, talented, innovative, cultured and so much more. At a time when members of our communities are feeling vulnerable and under attack, my message is clear: you belong here. Your heritage, your history and your culture is our heritage, history and culture, and it makes us proud to be British. We know that the scale of the challenge before us is huge. That is why we must meet it with the same level of ambition to tackle it. Now is the time to be bold, brave and courageous and to re-own the narrative. That will be achieved only by fighting hard for race equality like those who came before us—by working together, with steely determination, and telling the world that we are the great country we are because of our diversity, rather than in spite of it. Together we can, and we will. I thank everyone again for their contributions, and I commend this debate to the House. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered Black History Month.
Source: UK Parliament Hansard API. Debate ID: 5423152.