Asian MPs warn all-black shortlists will lead to 'political apartheid'

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Harriet Harman: Architect of the all-black shortlists proposals

In a blow to Equalities Minister Harriet Harman, the architect of the proposal, they said the idea would lead to "political apartheid".

Miss Harman, who helped to draw up all-women shortlists when local parties choose parliamentary candidates, wants to boost the number of ethnic minority MPs.

They number 15 out of the 646 MPs from all parties.

She pledged to increase the number fourfold during her successful campaign to win Labour's deputy leadership last year.

But several black and Asian MPs warned that the idea could lead to segregation and "colour coding".

Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Perry Barr, said: "This smacks of a colonial attitude that divides our population into different blocks and allocates representatives accordingly."

Black-only lists would be "a form of political apartheid which will encourage division and segregation", he said.

Sadiq Khan, the Tooting MP and a Labour whip, said: "The danger of all-black shortlists is that only people of a certain race or ethnicitycan represent constituents of the same race or ethnicity."

Other MPs with doubts are said to include Parmjit Dhanda, a junior minister at the Department of Communities and Local Government and MP for Gloucester.

Another is Ashok Kumar, whose Middlesbrough constituency is 98.6 per cent white.

Sunder Katwala, general secretary of the Labour-affiliated Fabian Society, warned that "allminority shortlists risk ghettoising Britain's next generation of non-white politicians".

Black and Asian politicians who support Miss Harman's initiative include David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, and Keith Vaz, chairman of the all-party Commons home affairs committee.