Transcript

SHARON THOMPSON

Besides geographical boundaries, what makes a constituency inclusive is the people, and you have to understand your role within that. It’s about understanding the differences between communities, the cultural differences, the things that make people tick. Whether that’s based on an estate, whether it’s based on a faith, it’s how people come together.

Within my ward, I made sure that last year, we had our first Iftar that brought together the community to break bread in the middle of Ramadan, which was really important for us as political leadership to work with the community and bring people together. So it’s about celebrating the differences between cultures. But also within that, it’s also about recognising the differences and the challenges that individual communities have. So it’s really, really important that you are the advocate, and you are the voice, but you also share power across the community.

To recognise the differences some of the things that we’ve done is there was an attack in our local area, and I made sure that we pulled together the different types of agencies, whether that was the police, the police and crime commissioner, community services, so that we could bring rest into the community, so that people didn’t feel nervous, anxious, or scared within the community in which they lived. It’s really is about sometimes being the peacemaker, being the advocate, being the person that actually, really helps them to find their space in community power, and making sure that we all come together in a really equitable way. There’s lots of issues in local communities, but there’s lots of value. And inclusive communities will always start by putting the people at the heart and centre of that.

In my opinion, we’ve come a long way when it comes to representation of the Black community in politics, but it hasn’t gone far enough. When you think back to when Diane Abbott, Bernie Grant, and Paul Boateng were first actually elected, and now we have 65 Black MPs across the chamber. But I think one of the key things is that we always need more, because we need local communities to be represented well within parliament and within politics.

Now there’s a whole broad spectrum of that. It’s not just about your identity as a Black or ethnic minority in politics, it’s also taking those other nuances into account. So I’m also conscious of the fact that I’m also a woman, so I represent in terms of the gender equality. It’s also looking at those from the LGBT community, disability, also those that come from the working class. There’s a whole range of things, because our identities are very fluid. So it’s really key that we have more people coming through. We have come a long way, but are you going to be the person that puts yourself forward to step into politics and join people like me, who are sitting in chambers across the country.

The advice that I would give to Black leaders coming into politics, when it comes to championing around diversity, equality, and inclusion, my starting point would be to pick what your niche is. There are so many different areas where policy needs to be influenced and looked at through that inclusive space. So it might be housing, it might be policing, it might be education. There’s a whole raft of areas. So pick the area that you’re most familiar and passionate about. And be really clear with yourself, what is the type of change that you want to make.

I think the other thing that I would say is definitely is about allyship. It’s about making sure that you build allies around the political space. Because sometimes, there are rooms where we are not represented, as in the Black community. And we need people inside those rooms speaking up and making those changes and recommendations around those tables. So allyship is really, really important.

And finally, being unapologetic about standing up when it comes to inclusion, equality, and diversity. There’s going to be people that you come across across the way that won’t always understand our perspective, your perspective, and some of the things that we’re trying to champion for. Make sure that you deliver your message in a way that when you’re in certain rooms and in different spaces that your message may remain the same, but your delivery and the language that you use is in a way that’s palatable, that brings people together, and actually influences them to make the changes that we need to see.

And there’s not one size that fits all. There are many aspects and many different ways that we can utilise our voice to get to the change that we need to see. And it’s about understanding where you fit into that, and how you can work with others to deliver different parts of that message. Whether you’re the campaigner, the lobbier, or the one that goes into the room, or the person that holds the pen on the policy changes of recommendations.