This evening the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party held a reception with media to praise the contribution made by Britain’s diverse communities to British society.

He was introduced by “Bend it like Beckham” Director Gurinder Chadha. Gordon Brown said the Labour party is proud of the fact that Britain is a multi–faith and multi-racial society from the High Court to the armed forces, from the senior civil service to the top of British business, from the police force to our universities, in every part of the country, from every walk of life, from all faiths and none.

BAME (Black,Asian and Minority Ethnic) Britons are aspiring to and reaching the top. Labour has led the way with many parliamentary firsts on race.we are proud to have had the

• First Black MPs (Bernie Grant and Diane Abbott)
• First Muslim MP (Mohammad Sarwar)
• First Asian Minister in the Commons (Keith Vaz)
• First Black Cabinet Minister (Paul Boateng)
• First Cypriot Cabinet Minister (Lord Adonis)
• First Black Leader of the Lords (Baroness Amos).
• First Black, and Female, Attorney General (Patricia Scotland)
• First Cypriot Chief Executive of the Law Society and chief commissioner of the Civil Service (Janet Paraskeva)
• First Black Female Minister in the Commons ( Dawn Butler)

Away from Politics in Sport we have Asians Amir Khan boxing and Nasser Hussein cricket. Blacks Lennox Lewis Boxing, Lewis Hamilton Motor racing and Kelly Homes Athletics. Sport the Cypriots have Ivan Gazidis and Tony Kleanthous football. In acting Art Malik and Sir Ben Kingsley the Asians.notable blacks on TV Sir Trevor Mcdonald and Lenny Henry. Notable Cypriots in the glamour world George Michael.Peter Andre Yusuf Islam. Well known singers.

Noted Business people Asians Lakshmi Mittal and Lord Paul, Blacks Damon Buffini heads Permira one of the worlds largest private equity firms.Cypriots are Sir Stelios Haji Ioannou and Theo Paphitis.

Labour wants to see more progress on making Parliament and democracy more representative of the diverse communities it serves. Thats why The PM instigated the creation of the speakers conference – a high level parliamentary investigation into what more can be done to make the House of Commons more diverse. All the party leaders including the PM, have given evidence in person and it is due to conclude in 2010. The Equality bill will allow political parties to use positive action measures to support and select more ethnic minority candidates at local and national level if they want to. We set up a cross party task force to help empower and encourage black, Asian and ethnic minority women to become local councillors. We want to see more BAME people in on the boards of important public bodies and have set tough new targets. By 2011 we want 11% of public appointments to be people from ethnic minorities.Currently, less than 6% are.