Black History Month 2024 - a message from Christine Jardine MP

October is Black History Month - a chance to celebrate the Black British community, acknowledge their contributions and discover their stories.

It feels particularly timely given this year’s theme of ‘Reclaiming Narratives’, which encourages us to challenge how we perceive history and the world around us. We owe an enormous amount to the Black British community for their contributions to our society - not least the Windrush generation’s key role in building the NHS.

But here in the UK, far too many people’s lives are still blighted by prejudice, discrimination, and inequality. As we saw in the riots this summer, racism is still far too prevalent in our society. We all have a responsibility to recognise this reality - but also the role that we can play in challenging this injustice.

I’m proud that Liberal Democrats are committed to fighting for racial equality. That means unequivocally condemning racism in all its forms and tackling injustice wherever we see it.

Take the Windrush scandal, for example. The previous Conservative government utterly failed to deliver the justice that Windrush victims so deeply deserve. They dithered and delayed with implementing the recommendations of the Lessons Learned review, and just last month the Parliamentary Ombudsman found that the Home Office was wrongly denying compensation payments to victims.

Liberal Democrats will keep pushing to right these wrongs - including by urgently implementing the Lessons Learned review in full, and making the compensation scheme independent from the Home Office.

And we will strive to put racial equality at the heart of everything we do. Whether that’s bringing forward a specific plan to reduce the disproportionately high maternal mortality rates for Black women, or improving diversity in the workplace and public life.

As we honour the stories of so many Black pioneers this month, we owe it to them to stand up to hate and injustice wherever we see it.

Christine Jardine MP