New UK parliament breaks barriers with unprecedented diversity
The UK’s newly-elected Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will oversee a parliament more ethnically diverse and more female-led than ever.
Analysis by the think tank British Future says black, Asian and ethnic minority ministers will represent around 13%, up from 10% in 2019, when the UK last held a parliamentary election.
“The 2024 election is a landmark for representation, with record diversity in our parliament, closer than ever to that of the electorate,” Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, said.
“The irony that it coincides with the end of Rishi Sunak’s premiership as the UK’s first British Asian Prime Minister only underlines how ethnic diversity has become a new norm across the main political parties.”
Among the ethnic minority ministers named in Starmer’s top team are David Lammy as Foreign Secretary and Shabana Mahmood as Justice Minister. Starmer replaced Rishi Sunak who made history as the UK’s first British-Asian prime minister.
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Rachel Reeves is the UK’s first female Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The election also saw a record 12 members from the Sikh community, including six women, being elected to the House of Commons. They are among the 28 Indian-origin members of Parliament who have elected.
All the Sikh MPs belong to the Labour Party including Preet Kaur Gill, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Nadia Whittome and Kirith Entwistle. Sonia Kumar became the first woman MP from the Dudley parliamentary seat. Similarly, Harpreet Kaur Uppal won the Huddersfield parliamentary seat to enter the Parliament for the first time.
Other elected Sikh MPs include Satvir Kaur, Warinder Juss, Dr Jeevun Sandher, Jas Athwal, Gurinder Singh Josan and Baggy Shanker.
