Affirmative action and British politics

No white politicians need apply:

The Labour party has imposed four people from ethnic minorities as the possible parliamentary candidates for one of its safest London seats.

The four will fight for selection in Brent South where black MP Paul Boateng is stepping down.

The move goes against current policy of using all-women shortlists for seats with a sitting Labour MP.

A Labour party spokesman said it was not in response to recent calls for "all-black" shortlists.

"This is just a coincidence. The decision was taken that it would not be an all-women shortlist but four ethnic minority candidates being selected was just a coincidence," the spokesman said.

"It's not the first time this has happened. It's a decision taken on a case-by-case basis for seats where say, like in this case, there is a large ethnic minority population."

The selection contest for a candidate to replace Paul Boateng will take place on Thursday.

The four candidates are Razi Rahman, a Downing Street policy advisor, Mary Foulkes, a Labour party activist from south-east London, Navin Shah, leader of Harrow council in west London and trade union official Dawn Butler, one of the beaten candidates in the recent West Ham selection contest.

The borough of Brent in north-west London is one of two areas of Britain where ethnic minorities - at 55% - make up the majority of the population.

The other is Newham in east London, where the 2001 census showed ethnic minorities accounted for almost two-thirds of the population.

Race groups including the Commission for Racial Equality have called for Labour to use "all-black" instead of all-women shortlists in such areas when a sitting MP is stepping down.

That call was repeated in February by campaign group Operation Black Vote (OBV) after a white woman was selected to stand for Labour in West Ham, a constituency in Newham.

Simon Woolley, the director of OBV - which aims to increase ethnic minorities' political participation - said the Brent South decision was "great news".

"At last we've got a positive message for the black community. Although this is not a designated all-black shortlist, what it demonstrates is the deluge of black talent in London and across the country," Mr Woolley said.

At the last election Paul Boateng, who later became the UK's first black cabinet minister, had a majority of 17,000 votes in Brent South.

The other two main political parties are also fielding ethnic minority candidates in the constituency.

Rishi Saha, a Hindu of Indian descent, will represent the Conservatives while black lawyer James Allie will stand for the Liberal Democrats.

Brent's ethnic mix
White: 45.3%
Black: 19.9%
Asian: 27.7%
Mixed race: 3.7%
Chinese: 3.4%
Source: 2001 Census

So I guess this is what happens in Britain when whites become a minority in any electoral district.