Young Vanza in Politics
Mayor Ken Livingston (left) and Raj Jethwa (right).
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Raj Jethwa was recently re-elected as Ethnic Minorities Officer of the London Labour Party. The election took place at the London Labour Party Biennial Conference on 25 November at Stratford Town Hall. The Conference was attended by around 200 delegates representing 400,000 Labour Party and trade union members. Raj Jethwa beat three other candidates, comfortably receiving 85 percent of the votes cast. Below, he talks about some of his work in this role.
From local councils with responsibility for road safety measures, to the UK Government deciding how much VAT customers pay on clothing or the level of income tax employees pay on their earnings, all way to the European Union setting levels for the amount of pesticides that can be used on food crops, politics affects all of us on a daily basis. People from ethnic minorities make up about seven per cent of the population of the Great Britain, but generally our representation in politics and government is much lower than this. London The 2001 Census showed that 29 per cent of London’s population were from a minority ethnic group. The proportion of people from a minority ethnic background in England and Wales was nine per cent – 4.5 million people; London was home to nearly half (46 per cent) of that total – 2.1 million people. The capital has a higher proportion of people from most minority ethnic groups than any other region of England and Wales. Just over half (52 per cent) of Britain's Hindu population lives in London, concentrated in Brent and Harrow where it makes up a fifth of each of these populations (17 per cent and 20 per cent respectively). Yet the proportion of councillors from an ethnic minority background is less than 11 percent. Out of 74 Members of Parliament, there are only five from ethnic minorities communities. Out of the 25 members of the Greater London Assembly, there are only two ethnic minority Assembly Members. That low representation within the Greater London Assembly is amazing, given that the Assembly is a watchdog for London, holding the Mayor to account for his decisions, actions and policies. The Mayor of London is responsible for running London’s transport, police and fire services and promoting London’s economy. Assembly Members act as champions for Londoners. They also represent Londoners on key organisations such as the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA), and the London Development Agency (LDA). Encouraging people to take part, Encouraging people from ethnic minority communities to participate in political life is crucial if our concerns are to be taken seriously. In the 2001 election only 47 percent of members of ethnic minority communities voted, compared to an average turnout of 59 percent. In my role as Ethnic Minorities Officer of the London Labour Party, over the last year I have organised a series of events to look at ways of increasing diversity within the London Labour Party. Those events have encouraged a growing number of Party members from ethnic minority communities to become active campaigners, to stand for local elections and to put themselves forward for the Labour Party’s national parliamentary panel. Those events have also served as a mechanism for members from ethnic minorities to share their experiences – and frustrations – with the Party’s structures and selection procedures; feedback which the Party, and indeed all political parties, should welcome if they are serious about improving ethnic minority representation. A concrete outcome of these discussions was a new guide I drafted for ethnic minority activists, entitled Encouraging Diversity, which was launched at the London Labour Party Biennial Conference in November 2006. In London nearly one person in three is from a visible ethnic minority. This diversity gives our capital so much vitality as a city, but that diversity also has to be reflected throughout London’s political structures – in the GLA, in our boroughs and among our Parliamentary representatives. Greater representation for people from ethnic minorities is not an end in itself, but the means to an end – it is good for democracy and good for decision-making. |