Ethnic Minorities

Baroness Howells of St Davids Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Howells of St Davids (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, for raising this debate in her own inimitable way. Black people’s experience is that there is a deficit in this country that holds back our children and chains our citizens to a life of a possibly untapped goldmine of potential. I am speaking not of a budget deficit but of a disparity of BME appointments to the highest echelons of this society in our public institutions.

I will first say a few words about the church. During World War II, thousands of black soldiers volunteered from all across the globe to support the British. It was the custom for American troops, made up of black and white soldiers, to attend a religious service on Sunday. In this country, the soldiers marched to church on the first Sunday of their residence here. What happened? They attended a service and went back to their base. On arriving on the second Sunday, the priest met them outside and said that black soldiers were not welcome at the service as they frightened the very delicate white congregation. They were soldiers in uniform and did nothing except be present. The soldiers had to wait outside until the service was over before they could go back to their base. They were turned away from the house of the Lord.

Another occurrence took place during my time in this House. It was the custom that a Church of England priest attached to the abbey would serve Parliament. When a black woman priest was chosen by Mr Speaker, Parliament and the abbey split. A white priest was chosen for the abbey and the black priest, thanks to Mr Speaker, kept her role as the priest here. I shall not bore the House with the excuses that were made when we challenged that.

Similar occurrences have happened through time on UK soil. Now they occur in more subtle ways. People from the Caribbean did not wait outside churches; they founded their own churches and, despite subtle attempts to stop them, they flourished. Our public institutions would do well to consider the type of institutional racism that goes on. There is never a lack of a congregation in black-run churches. The black community, when allowed, has always contributed greatly to the faith institutions of our country, but just as being equal in the eyes of the Lord did not stop black soldiers being turned away from a church on a cold winter’s day all those years ago, being equal in the eyes of the law does not allow black churches to do this. They now have different ways, but they still do not appreciate their black worshippers. Mostly, they are locked out of the highest ranks in our public institutions in the modern era. In law, great steps have been made in the long march towards true equality, many of which Members of this House witnessed and even contributed to, but even now within the walls and mindsets of public institutions progress has been stifled by complacency and a lack of attention to equality. The Prime Minister said that we must let hard-working people get on. There are no more hard-working people than the black community. Most of them will boast that they have never had a day off work. I am sure I do not need to tell the House of the black community’s great—when it is allowed—contribution to the country when the country needed it most.

If we are not represented as leaders and role models, the epidemic of underrepresentation in every sector of our society is depriving the whole nation of the talent of black and other ethnic groups contributing in a real and meaningful way.