Harman calls for more black women councillors

Harriet Harman has called for action to help more black, Asian and minority ethnic women councillors be elected.

Speaking at a reception in Westminster on Monday, the Labour deputy leader and minister for women and equalities highlighted new data showing that their numbers have dropped since a small peak in 2006.

This year only around 150 of 19,000 councillors across England are minority ethnic women, compared with 164 two years ago, still less than one per cent of all local authority representatives.

And with minority ethnic women making up more than five per cent of the population, Harman argued that they should have nearer to 1,000 councillors if town halls are to be truly representative.

Meanwhile Wales and Scotland have no female black or Asian councillors at all.

"Our local democracy needs to be fully representative – but it's not," Harman said. "It lacks the voice of black and Asian women at a local level.

"For local government to make the right decisions, it must be representative of, and rooted in, its local communities. Black and Asian women are the missing voice in our local democracy.

"Our local councils need to understand the different communities that make up diverse modern Britain. You get better informed decision making when all members of the community are involved."

Action being taken includes a taskforce under Muslim peer Baroness Uddin, aimed at encouraging ethnic minority women to stand, new targets for appointments to public bodies to be more proportionate and government-commissioned academic research.

Earlier this year, the prime minister also proposed a year-long Speaker's conference into the issue of under-representation in the House of Commons.