Chizom Ekeh questions and debates the possibility of having a black Prime Minister

WHEN BARACK Obama was elected as America’s president in 2008, many began to ask whether Britain could ever have a black prime minister.

In 2009, Harvard professor, Robert Putnam, presented evidence which suggested that the “deepening tide of tolerance” in the US and UK, meant that this was possible.

RESEARCH

The outcome of the research, which measured attitudes towards inter-racial marriage and whether people minded a black boss at work, led Putnam to conclude that Britons were ready to accept non-whites in positions of power.

However while he agreed with equality chief Trevor Phillips, that Obama’s election result could never have happened in the UK, Putnam said that the centralised political system thwarted ethnic minorities’ ambitions. Putnam added that the smaller minority population and “shallower” pool of black politicians, tended to work against black representation.

Among campaigners working to promote race equality on the ground, views on whether we could see a ‘British Obama’ are mixed. 

Elizabeth Henry, chief executive at the charity, Race on the Agenda, does not think this could happen in the next 20 years. 

She says: “I’m a glass half full kind of person and in that sense I think anything is possible. But in reality, my answer would be no.”

Henry, who studied and lived in America for nine years, says there’s a big difference in how race is addressed in both countries. As an example of this she raises the issue of affirmative action. 

She says: “At the very highest levels we have vehemently resisted affirmative action in this country. In America, yes it was resisted, but eventually it became part of the fabric of society. What that means to me is that America faced the fact that racism existed and in facing that put in place a policy and practice that would tackle that head on.”

As a result she says in all spheres of American public life ethnic minorities are more visible and broadly represented.

While affirmative action has not transformed America into a “post-racial utopia”, Henry says it has been instrumental in breaking down the “last vestiges of oppression.” She believes that this was only possible because of the movement for civil rights. 

Henry acknowledges that in America “massive inequalities” still exist, but laments the “stoic” refusal of politicians to consider affirmative action in the UK. 

Highlighting the deep inequalities that persist in Britain, she says: “Look at our criminal justice system and the DNA database – 75 per cent of samples on the DNA database come from black men. How does that happen? How is it that possible in a society where black men make up less than three per cent of the population? There’s a big question mark over that. Look at the rates of imprisonment in this country and our educational and health outcomes. So are we going to have a prime minister from a visible minority ethnic background? I don’t have a crystal ball, but based on what I do know, I don’t think so, no.”

Meanwhile for Simon Woolley, director of Operation Black Vote, the answer to the question remains open.

Woolley too is optimistic that Britain could see a black prime minister in the next 20 years, but thinks this individual could come from either Labour or the Conservatives. Either way, he’s clear that any black leader would have to be conservative with a small ‘c’.

He dismisses the chances of a black leader coming from the Liberal Democrats or the Greens – for the simple reason that “neither party has understood race – either in a self-interested or social justice way.”

Top of his list is Labour’s Chuka Umunna, MP for Streatham, followed by David Lammy, MP for Tottenham. 

Of the Asian politicians he names Sadiq Khan, MP for Tooting, who he believes to be “brilliant”.

On the Conservative side, like Berkeley, Woolley names Kwasi Kwarteng.
He believes Kwarteng could appeal to the “heart and soul of the party.”

LIMITS

However he says that the British political system stifles the political ambitions of minorities.

He believes that it was the system of primaries in the US which allowed a talented politician like Obama to come through.

“Here in the UK it couldn’t happen because you need to work within the party structure” he says.

Like Henry, he believes that the civil rights tradition helps to explains why Obama’s election happened in the US first rather than in the UK.
He states that it was the big legal cases taken on by Martin Luther King that helped to transform America.

“It was affirmative action that allowed people like Colin Powell in the army, Condoleeza Rice and Reverend Jesse Jackson to stand twice.”

He also highlights the significance of the church tradition from which Obama and many black politicians have emerged. He says that this helped them to acquire the oratory and debating skills needed to become” global leaders.”

OBV can claim some credit for the fact that at the 2010 election 27 ethnic minority MPs gained seats. However out of 650 parliamentary seats this equates to just four per cent. This means that at ten per cent of the population ethnic minorities remain under-represented. 

Furthermore despite the historic jump in the number of ethnic minority Tory MPs from two to twelve, Woolley worries that this could lead to the belief that we live in a post-racial society.

On the contrary he concludes, “far from getting better race inequality is getting worse” and the riots a year later in 2011 were symptomatic of this.