According to the Times this morning, Salford Labour MP Hazel Blears wants to see more local government candidates and Councillors from ethnic minorities. I agree with her – Councils should be representative of the communities which they serve.
Hazel could perhaps start by looking at her own backyard. Her own Salford Labour Party has an absymal record of promoting ethnic minority candidates in local government. Let’s have a look at the evidence:
Labour Councillors in Salford: 42
Ethnic Minority Councillors: Nil
2007 Salford Labour Council Candidates: 20
Ethnic Minority Candidates: Nil
2006 Salford Labour Council Candidates: 22
Ethnic Minority Candidates: Nil
Presumably Hazel will be having a stern word with her own members on this issue, although I won’t be holding my breath - pure hypocrisy has never been a problem for Salford Blairites.
Salford Conservatives select our candidates on merit and merit alone, and at this year’s elections we had three very able ethnic minority candidates all of whom would be assets to the City and to the Council. I look forward to welcoming them as fellow Councillors in the near future!
Interesting.
Have blogged it (http://blogs.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/politics/2007/09/all_white_all_wrong.html) and it may yet appear in the paper…
David
David you’ll be pleased to know your blog made the Council Marketing Department’s news digest for the first time thanks to that particular piece…
Fame at last, eh?
Blimey! How many BME candidates have been stood for Council in Salford by either the Tories or the Lib Dems? Never mind elected.
Salford has a rather high proportion of white citizens does it not? In Manchester were there is far more of a mixture of communities and 140 languages are spoken Labour is far and away ahead of the other parties on equality between men and women and on representation of different communities.
How many Tory BME candidates of 32 Manchester wards in 2007? Please advise Iain.
This is an appalling piece of silliness Iain. And David, you should surely look a bit more before you leap.
Chris,
Iain makes a fair point _about Salford_. He is, after all, a Salford councillor, and Hazel a Salford MP. Perhaps you should ask the Salford council Labour group if they are entirely happy about the lack of ethnic minority councillors and candidates. I suspect they are not.
You are quite right that the issue is not generalisable on a party political basis to other parts of Greater Manchester (or the UK as a whole, for that matter). Your points about Manchester are well taken. Nonetheless, Manchester is not Salford.
David
It seems I’ve hit a bit of a raw nerve judging by that squawk of a response, Chris!
I believe that two of our 2007 Manchester City Council candidates were from an ethnic minority background. I am sure that number will rise as our Manchester organisation gets stronger, but I am happy that Manchester Conservatives ran a diverse and representative slate including ethnic minority, gay, female and disabled candidates. I don’t know all 32 of those candidates personally but I know that those I was familiar with would all make excellent Councillors regardless of their background.
I am also heartened that the Conservative Party is fielding full slates of candidates in areas where our organisation is weakest. By contrast, in the Conservative heartland areas the Labour Party fields a handful of candidates at best, and in many places none at all.
However, I wasn’t talking about Manchester (as you well know). Here in Salford, I clearly stated in my post that we fielded a number of BME candidates in the 2007 elections, one of whom came within 30 votes of being successful despite a below-the-radar Labour campaign which can only be described as vile. Two BME candidates have already been selected for May 2008 and I expect that more will follow.
I’m glad you mentioned female candidates, because as you’ll be aware the Salford Conservative Group is 50% male and 50% female. This is in marked contrast to the Labour Group, and in even more marked contrast to the Labour Cabinet which contains 9 men and 1 woman.
I’m sorry if it annoys you that the Salford Conservatives have a far better record on representation and equality than the Salford Labour Party, but it is the truth. I am delighted that here in Salford the Conservative Party is genuinely representative of the community in Salford, and even more so that all of our candidates are selected on talent and merit.
Oh come on Iain! All this is news to me. I didn’t know the answers. Which is why I posed the questions.
I think it is fair to say that Manchester has a wider range of numerically significant BME communities than Salford and that one would therefore expect a wider range of candidates here? Yes?
As far as I can recall there has NEVER been a BME Tory councillor in the City of Manchester. And according to your own figures or rather vague allusions your candidate slate in Mcr was less diverse in terms of race here than in Salford?
Salford’s Labour Group as larger Tory groups in days gone by and in other places does have some issues of incumbency/succession. Most incumbents get to continue to stand until they fail, retire or drop off the register!
So with a larger group and lots of incumbents standing it is BY DEFINITION more difficult to field a diverse slate than if you have a small foothold and lots of seats to attack. Hence your comparison is not like with like. You are quote vague and rather spurious statistics. Though I’m sure Mr Merry and company will be taking a look at whatever vacancies they have and trying to make progress.
Unless willing to deselect whole swathes of long serving councillors a ruling group has less options open to it? Yes?
In the parliamentary stakes of course Labour are way ahead of all other parties and the actions being taken by both Tories and Lib Dems don’t fill me with any great confidence that this is about to change any time soon.
PS The stats in your post refer to visible minorities do they not? As you don’t say black or visible they really ought to include non visible minorities don’t you think?