Politwoops

I asked the Home office, what assessment thd Department has made of the potential merits of a musicians’ passport for live performing and touring musicians after the end of the transition period. theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2020…

Disappointed of course not to be elected as @CommonsIDC Chair yesterday, but huge congratulations to @SarahChampionMP. She will be a fantastic Chair holding the government to account as @DFID_UK navigates an uncertain future. I look forward to working with her.

One of the reasons I stood was to show others that BAME working class women can be recognised as experts and leaders, not just activists. And to test out if fellow MPs agreed. I didn’t break my own glass ceiling yesterday, but someone else will soon. 2/12

But that’s not what this thread is about. Today, I took a step back, and with my team I crunched some numbers. All 28 Committee Chairs have now been elected. We took a look at diversity, using data on MPs reported by the BBC, and here’s what we found. 3/12

7.7% (50 of 650) MPs are openly gay, lesbian or bisexual. That’s compares closely with 7.1% (2 of 28) of new Committee Chairs. The numbers are hardly cause for celebration, but they’re decent enough. 4/12

Gender next. 33.8% (220 of 650) MPs are female, but just 28.6% - only 8 out of 28 – of the newly elected Committee Chairs are female. We didn’t have time to get accurate numbers on private school education or Oxbridge education, but hopefully someone will. 5/12

But here’s where it gets bad. 10% (65 of 650) MPs are Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME). That’s 65 highly qualified, knowledgeable Members of Parliament who colleagues could push to run, or elect. Yet not a single one of the 28 new Committee Chairs is BAME. 6/12

There are two called Robert. There are two Stephens. But not a single person of colour. And in fact, Parliament has so far had very few BAME Chairs of Committees in its history. 7/12

Of course, numerical representation isn’t everything. But it’s a decent place to start. And beyond the numbers, things aren’t much better. @abenaopp and @FloEshalomi spoke about their Parliament experience. @DawnButlerBrent told how people assumed she was a cleaner. 8/12

For my part, I’ve also had MPs – Labour, as well as Tories – confuse me with black colleagues, who look quite different. And national newspapers used pictures of Fiona Onasanya for stories about me. Racism isn’t new. But it’s complicated, and often unconscious. 9/12