Politics national house of commons

According to the House of Commons Library Data, there are 27 ethnic minority MPs which is equivalent to 4.2% of the total. In more than a decade, the number of ethnic minority MPs have increased from 15 to 27, but they are still disproportionately low compared to the general population. The UK ethnic population from the 2011 Census is 12.9%. If the non-white population were represented proportionally in the House of Commons, there would be around 84 minority ethnic MPs.

A note of caution does need to be attached to this data as ethnicity is difficult to define, it is a sensitive issue and the data relies on self-definition. It is therefore subject to estimations at any given time.

Ethnic Minority Population in the UK (Sources 2011 Census, ONS, NISRA, GROS)

Country                                                White %                              Ethnic   %           

England                                                 85.3                                        14.7

Wales                                                    95.5                                         4.5

Scotland                                               95.9                                         4.1

Northern Ireland                                98.2                                         1.8

UK Total                                               87.1                                        12.9

The first Indian MP was Dadabhai Naoroji, who was elected Liberal MP for Finsbury Central from 1892 to 1895. Naoroji was born in western India and was a critic of British rule in India. Prominent pro-British Indians retaliated by putting up their own candidate, Mancherjee Bhownaggree (later Sir Mancherjee) who represented Bethnal Green North-East from 1895 to 1905 for the Conservative Party. The third Indian born MP was Shapurji Saklavala who represented Battersea North for Labour from 1922 to 1923 and as a community from 1924 to 1929. These there MPs were all of Zoroastrian origin.

After 1945, the first ethnic minority MP was Diane Abbott who was elected in 1987 (Hackney North & Stoke Newington) followed by Paul Boateng (Brent South), Bernie Grant (Tottenham) and Keith Vaz (Leicester East) who has now become the longest serving ethnic MP.

Ethnic Minority MPS according to their political affiliation (as elected at General Election):

	Labour	Conservative	Lib-Dem	Other	Total
1987	4	0	0	0	4
1992	5	1	0	0	6
1997	9	0	0	0	9
2001	12	0	0	0	12
2005	13	2	0	0	15
2010	15	11	0	0	27

Of the 27 ethnic MPs, 5 are of Hindu origin including two women. They are:

Seema Malhotra	Feltham & Heston	Labour
Alok Sharma	Reading West	Conservative
Pritt Patel	Witham	Conservative
Virendra Sharma	Ealing Southall	Labour
Shailesh Vara	North West Cambridgeshire	Conservative

Other ethnic MPs

Diane Abbott	Hackney North & Stoke Newington	Labour
Adam Afriyie	Windsor	Conservative
Rushanara  Ali	Bethnal Green & Bow	Labour
Rehman Chishti	Gillingham & Rainham	Conservative
Helen Grant	Maidstone	Conservative
Sam Gyimah	East Surrey	Conservative
Mark  Hendrick	Preston	Labour
Sajid Javid	Bromsgrove	Conservative
Sadiq  Khan	Tooting	Labour
Kwasi  Kwarteng	Spelthorne	Conservative
David  Lammy	Tottenham	Labour
12 Mahmood Khalid	Birmingham, Perry Barr	Labour
Shabana Mahmood	Birmingham Ladywood	Labour
Lisa  Nandy	Wigan	Labour
Chi  Onwurah	Newcastle Central	Labour
Yasmin Qureshi	Bolton	Labour
Anas Sarwar	Glasgow Central	Labour
Chuka  Ummuna	Streatham	Labour
Paul Uppal	Wolverhampton SW	Conservative
Keith Vaz	Leicester East	Labour
Valerie Vaz	Walsall	Labour
Nadim Zahawi	Stratford upon Avon	Conservative

Ethnic Minority women in Parliament

Prior to 2010, there had only ever been two black female MPs and no Asians women. The 2010 General Election saw 7 female MPs including the first Asian female MPs. The current total stands at 10.