Time and time again, we hear that the reality of what ethnic minorities face in our party and in our politics does not match up to the principles we hold, and, as a party committed to equality, it is vital that we apply our values and make a change. I will provide the positive vision and leadership we need to move forward and make that happen.

As a former Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate, I have seen prejudice close-up, within British politics and, sadly, within our party. And I know that I’m not the only one. My experience led me to take time to reflect and then, at Harvard, I learnt from world leaders on race equality, collaborative working, and leadership. I want to translate my experience and learning into change for our party in the UK. As a starting point, we must implement the Alderdice Review recommendations.

I was honoured to receive endorsements from members across the country, including Baroness Sal Brinton, Chris Lucas, Cllr Sarah Cheung Johnson, Tom Brake, Layla Moran MP, Baroness Alison Suttie and Sarah Green MP.

If I were elected as your Vice President, we could:

• Promote a collaborative, positive working style to take the party from debate to action
• Implement the Alderdice Review recommendations at every level of the Liberal Democrats
• Help local parties and SAOs engage and campaign with diverse communities to win elections in the country

It is time for change. As a party, we need to attract ethnic minority talent, promote equality and opportunity for all.

All about me

I was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and grew up on a council estate in London. I was in foster care for a short time. I studied at Oxford and most recently, Harvard.

I joined the party due to my opposition to the Iraq War and since then, I have run for council, London Assembly and as a target Parliamentary seat candidate in 2017. That year I was appointed the Lib Dems’ Shadow Refugee Minister and debated Nick Ferrari on LBC about the policy to allow in Syrian child refugees.

I am a regular contributor to BBC Asian Network and has appeared in The Guardian, the Evening Standard, ITV News, and the BBC, amongst others. Professionally, I am a campaigner working in healthcare policy.

Fun fact: Barack Obama follows me on Twitter! You can too at: @amnajahmad. You can also join my Facebook group – Amna for VP or email me at amnaforvp@gmail.com.

A campaigning Vice President, for a campaigning Party

I was a 100/200m Sprinter. Catastrophe struck in my early 20’s when my achilles tendon ruptured. For 20 months I was in a wheelchair. I needed wheelchair-friendly public transport to hospital and the inadequacy of it shocked me. It made me realise that everyone has a choice. When you see something that’s wrong, do you leave it for someone else, or do you fight for change?

I decided to fight for change. I set up a transport company and, eventually, was transporting 5,000 vulnerable children and adults in wheelchair accessible vehicles. I got involved in drafting the Private Hire Vehicles Act and helped lead the campaign for cab safety. I delivered contracts to the 2012 London Paralympics. I was named in the Black Power List.

But throughout my life I experienced racism and saw it blight so many people’s lives. I have spent years fighting racism.

I provided a campaign bus for Operation Black Vote and helped thousands to register to vote. In 2018 I was the founding chair of the Liberal Democrat Campaign for Race Equality. We established the RDC to develop ethnic minority candidates.

I was disappointed that, after John Alderdice’s report on race diversity, the party did nothing. So when the Thornhill Review was set up I, as Chair of LDCRE, sent in a submission.

We need to recognise that the ethnic minority vote is so substantial, that we cannot win without ethnic minority communities. If you ignore 40% of a constituency you are giving your local party a target of reaching 60% of the white vote.

Our recommendations were published in the Thornhill Review. Still the party failed to implement it. I then piloted an amendment to the strategy motion at the federal conference and committed the Party to act.

That is why I’m now standing for Vice-President: if elected I will make the party implement that strategy. John Alderdice and Dorothy Thornhill are supporting me.

I have rolled up my sleeves to show how it’s done – in just the last year I helped Anton Georgiou win a 29% swing in Brent; helping Nancy Jirira win Fortune Green, building support for Gareth Roberts in Hounslow and helping demolish the Labour vote in the C&A by-election. I have advised the Scottish Lib Dems and campaigned in Wales.

Change can’t wait

I will:

Ensure that the Party implements the Alderdice and Thornhill reviews.  I will make the party launch a national campaign to encourage and assist local parties to:

• reach out to ethnic minority communities
• include these communities in canvassing targets during elections
• establish their key concerns and campaign on them
• continue to campaign for the rights of women and LGBT+ ethnic minorities
• recruit ethnic minority members
• gain ethnic minority votes and make our party better reflect the diversity of the society we wish to represent

I will give you the tools to become more diverse, confident, and vote-winning.  For further information see my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1118017102271737

Change can’t wait. I hope you will vote for me for Vice-President.

Vision

My goals for this role are:

• I want to help provide a platform for better training and promote a programme that supports ethnic minority members to develop their potential, so they are competently able to stand for external and internal elections of office
• I want to see established an attractive and resilient message that helps to build a strong foundation for the Liberal Democrats to engage and campaign with in Ethnic Minority communities
• Within the party, I want to establish a better understanding of Ethnic minority issues on housing, education, LGBT+, heath, crime, etc. This will allow us to better serve the ethnic minority communities at a national and local level

Believe

This is the part I say how good I am…

• I understand how the party works
• How to deliver change
• I have extensive experience of campaigning
• I can lead to make change happen

I have been a member of the party coming up to 20 years. In that time, I have been a Town/Borough councillor for over 11 years; I have been a Branch, Constituency, Regional and English Party chair.

I understand how the party works, how to engage the different parts of the party to ensure we achieve change together, and I have a record of leading change at State and regional levels.

I am also an experienced campaigner overseeing and running a number of local campaigns and being involved in national campaigns.

Implemented change, in a party with a large volunteer base requires this to be done collaboratively. Therefore, imposing change or a standalone solution I believe won’t work.

Achieve

Like anyone else, ethnic minority members are concerned about their environment, health service, climate change etc., and they want to do something about it. To help them make a difference (many) will need training in planning a campaign, making a speech, writing Focuses, identifying a winnable seat and so on. I want to help get that developed and delivered.

Because every local, regional, and state party has diversity officers, a structure exists to communicate and work with officers. Such a structure can be used to identify issues, gather data and share information. As a party, we need to further develop the right message, and this will require working with a number of SAO’s, ethnic minority members and with the Head office. Again, bring people together.

Prior to Lord Alderdice’s report there were two other reports done looking at the issues relating to ethnic minorities in the party. Those reports were not really implemented. In fact, as a summary you can say that Lord Alderdice’s effectively said that if those reports were implemented most of the issues would be addressed. Consequently, it’s a priority for me to implement Lord Alderdice’s report.

You, as Liberal Democrat members, have asked me for a diverse, inclusive party that represents all sections of all our communities well.

I am standing to be your Vice President for minority communities to promote inclusion and to eliminate racism and other discrimination from inside our party, to inspire more and more candidates from under-represented groups to stand and to inspire all of us to engage on a sustained and substantive basis with all of the UK’s communities so that we eliminate exclusion and disadvantage.

I successfully campaigned for an inquiry, the Alderdice Inquiry, to take place and was involved with bringing those with evidence of racism to the inquiry. I will not only see that its findings are implemented, but also will work to ensure that we have a diverse party. Since it was completed my attention has continued to be on the grassroots of the Liberal Democrats. Few if any understand these issues in such detail.

I am your “Mastermind” special subject candidate on racism in the Liberal Democrats and I will work to dismantle it in a liberal way, for racism is not liberal.

I have worked: in scientific research and IT in industry and academia, in changing a blue-chip company’s working culture throughout its global supply chain to deliver measurable benefit, as a leading councillor in England’s then fastest improving council, for the NHS on equalities and inclusion and on governance: in education including higher education, the Liberal Democrats, charitable trusts, NHS governance and democratic accountability, economic development and regeneration and on public policy development in health, regeneration, the regional economy and other related fields. My dad was involved with the civil rights movement in the US and my mum’s family with the Indian Independence movement. We all work for major change. I was brought up in London and have lived in London, South Cambridgeshire, Cambridge, Paris, a provincial French city and a sparsely populated part of rural France. I spent much of my teenage school holidays accompanying extended family members who travelled for work in South Asia and have friends all over the UK.

My dad was involved with the civil rights movement in the US and my mum’s family with the Indian Independence movement. We all work for major change. I was brought up in London and have lived in London, South Cambridgeshire, Cambridge, Paris, a provincial French city and a sparsely populated part of rural France. I spent much of my teenage school holidays accompanying extended family members who travelled for work in South Asia and have friends all over the UK.

For 8 years, I was a leading local councillor in one of the most diverse Liberal Democrat-run local authorities. I am successful both in inspiring candidates from under-represented groups and have been remunerated to engage with diverse communities both for local government and the National Health Service.

I was recruited to an NHS Trust Board to address exactly these sorts of issues, a role which few have held in general let alone in the Liberal Democrats, where we are so much in need of culture change.

This is the only political party I have been involved with and I have held many, many different roles within the party over decades.

If you want to tackle racism inside our organisation to make it more diverse, whether institutional or individual, because that’s just not liberal, give me your first preference vote.

Thank you for your attention.

Your vote matters and is a Vote for Hope, Action and Transformation.

From when I arrived in London as a teenager, Sir John Major was Prime Minister and I felt a connection with the city. Firstly at university, and later whilst living in Islington, my political views formed and I joined the Liberal Democrats.

Recently I was honoured to be elected as your London Regional Diversity Champion. With considerable success I helped increase participation and engagement within our inclusion and diversity teams. In 2020 I founded the national BLACK Liberal Democrats with the mission to make heard the voice of Black members within the Party.

Making the Party relevant to the UK’s diverse groups of voters will be key to any Liberal Democratic success and will unlock our future.

I will call out injustice and celebrate success as I find them. I will help build our Party back.
I guarantee to make our Party better reflect the diversity and inclusion of the communities we serve.
I will empower our members to fully participate in the setting of our regional agendas. I will encourage a participatory approach to decision making and foster a shared ownership of decisions. I will use patience and understanding when working with people from diverse communites, age groups, ethnicity and nationalities.
And not forget the needs of young adults and marginalized communities.

I care deeply about our unique and diverse communities and will continue to work tirelessly for the well-being of society. We are surrounded by local, regional and global change. Our work-ethics and life-styles are rapidly changing. I will bring our LibDem values to the fore when campaigning and raise awareness of what we stand for.
Following COP26, what is needed is meaningful engagement with our communities through which we can empower and build more inclusive Britain, a caring Britian fit for the 21st Century, in a safe and sustainable world.
So my vision for London is a place based on a thriving and sustainable economy, where the air is fit to breathe, a place driven by green innovation, where every child, man and woman reaches their full potential.

I believe London can maintain a global presence, founded on circular and carbon economies made widely available through our expertise in, and access to, green finance.
In this country I believe a silent majority has for too long been ignored. Taken for granted. Let us give these people a voice. Let us once again be the voice of the people. Of all the people. Promoting inclusion is everyone’s responsibility. Together we can make a difference.
It is vital we truly reflect and understand the needs of our region. I can be that agent of change and with your support, advance the understanding of what we, the Liberal Democrats, represent. And gain electoral success.
I ask for your first preference vote.

Together reclaim the future. Together Achieves More.
Vote me as your First Preference.