Black History Month: Humza Yousaf criticises lack of diversity within Holyrood

In the 21 years of devolution, there has never been a black member of the Scottish Parliament.

A fact described as a "collective failure of the devolution era" by Scotland’s Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf.

It's as Northsound 1 highlights the achievements and contributions of black communities in Scotland for Black History Month.

He is one of only two non-white MSPs in the current Parliament and one of only four in Holyrood’s two decades.

Mr Yousaf said: "Devolution, the Scottish Parliament and all of the political parties involved have, in the last 20 years, failed ethnic minority communities."

Mr Yousaf says even within those non-white MSPs elected in the last 20 years, there is an issue of diversity.

He said: "All of them have been of sub-continent descent like myself, all four of them have been male, all four of them have been from Glasgow, so even within those four there has been a lack of diversity."

Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale is now the Director of the John Smith Centre at Glasgow University. It aims to promote civilised debate and break down barriers.

Ms Dugdale said: "The reality is, the Scottish Parliament doesn’t look like Scotland today.

"If it did, we would get much better public policy coming out of it, much better ideas, better laws and it would be laws that would represent all of us and worked in the interests of all of us."

The centre runs an internship programme giving Glasgow University students the chance to work within Scottish politics. 50 per cent of places have been ring fenced for BAME students.

Nelson Cummins, who is of Caribbean and British origin, recently spent time at Holyrood as part of his internship.

He said: "I was very aware, despite having a really good experience overall, that I was one of very few white staff there.

"You go for lunch, look around and you realise there is no-one there who looks like myself."

And he believes the issue isn’t the lack of black interest in the Scottish Parliament.

Nelson said: "There is a lot of really talented BAME people who are interested in Scottish politics, who want to be a part of Scottish politics and currently involved in Scottish politics but I don’t think Holyrood in its make up reflects that."

Later this week we will be talking with political parties about what they doing to increase BAME representation and speaking to potential candidates hoping to become Scotland’s first black MSP next May.

Hear all the latest news from the North East of Scotland on Northsound 1. Listen on FM, via our Rayo app, DAB, or smart speaker.

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