White, Male and Middle Class

Equality?

The recent election did see a record number of both female MP’s and MP’s from an ethnic background. This included the election of the UK’s first female Muslim MP in Labour’s Shabana Mahmood, in addition to Westminster’s first African woman in Chi Onwurah, again of the Labour party.

Indeed, the number of ethnic minority MP’s almost doubled this election, with an increase from 15 to 27. This is undoubtedly a sign of progress, but there is some way yet to go before this number reflects the UK’s demographic makeup. According to the 2001 census, around 8% of the UK is non-white and this figure may well have increased in the last ten years. According to a 2008 parliamentary report (based conservatively on the 2001 figures), a truly representative parliament would constitute 51 MP’s from an ethnic minority.

However, one might argue that gender equality in parliament has further yet to travel. With the gender divide almost equal in the UK – it doesn’t take a report to reveal that the 21.8% of women now occupying parliament is hardly representative of our population. This figure may be the highest ever, but with female MP’s numbering 142 compared to 507 males – equality still seems a long way away.

The non-representative nature of UK politics has been drawn attention to in the wake of the current Labour leadership contest. Out of the six running five are male, four of whom are 40-something former ministers – with only a solitary representative of both females and ethnic minorities in the form of Dianne Abbott. However, her chances of success seem limited. Her broadcast partner, journalist Andrew Neill expressed his delight at her running, but in the same breath described her chances of success as “zero”. Thus far she has secured only seven nominations, with a further 26 needed to enter the hustings. One of the seven backing her happens to be the influential John Cruddas, himself tipped as a potential candidate – but despite his support, it does appear Neill’s prediction may well be accurate.

Dianne Abbott’s decision to run was made partly, by her own admission, to provide a broader choice of leader for the Labour party. This is undoubtedly understandable, especially given the peculiar absence of any of the Labour party’s more prominent females from the race, such as Harriet Harman or Yvette Cooper. However, when it comes to choosing a leader, an MP or electing any official – should their race or gender really be a consideration?

Indeed, identity politics does come with a health warning – the perfect example of this being the Democratic primary race in the last US election. Understandably, the narrative put forward by the media especially was the historic nature of the potential for either the USA’s first black or female president. However, should race or gender really have been determining factors in the contest? Surely in a democratic and ideally meritocratic system – a candidate should be chosen on their qualities, not their gender nor the colour of their skin.

Of course it would make no sense for a female Democrat to have supported Sarah Palin or a black Democrat to support Alan Keyes. The same of course could be said for a female Republican supporting Clinton or a black Republican voting Obama. In each case voting based on race or gender would be nonsensical – as neither gender nor race is indicative of merit or political stance.

Pushing candidate’s identities in the same way as pushing their personalities leads to a lack of focus on merit or policy in any voter’s decision making process. This has seemingly become a factor already in the Labour leadership race, although less in terms of race and gender, but rather regarding class. Being lumped in the same demographic category as the three front-runners, Andy Burhnam’s leadership launch in a stadium in Leigh suggested an attempt to stand out with a more working class, common man feel. Again, there may well be reasons to choose Burnham as leader – but is a common man persona, authentic or not – really a legitimate reason for doing so?

One can only hope that in years to come identity politics is an irrelevant term – that there is no need for race, gender or class to be part of the agenda. There is without doubt a need for parliamentary politics to be diverse and demographically representative. I just hope that we can get to that stage in the fairest way possible by creating a political culture where diversity flourishes naturally. Quotas may now be a necessary evil in the short term, but hopefully in time such things will not be needed and a representative parliament will be a natural part of a democratic and meritocratic system. If this year’s election results are anything to go by, we may well get there – maybe not soon, but eventually.

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