We've been up to a lot over this spring. Chair Dr. Mohsin Khan summarises a few of our highlights:

- We've continued to make the case for reform of parliamentary candidate shortlisting. Our Comms Officer Chris has worked hard with legal minds and the Party to put forward a case for reforming this, and we are continuing to obtain legal advice to inform ongoing work on this. We have met with Wera Hobhouse MP and President Mark Pack to discuss this further.

- We've had meetings with President Mark Pack, Wera Hobhouse MP, and Lord Alderdice. We continue to push for improved diversity measures within our own Party and well as in our policies. Our meetings with Wera and her office have resulted in Parliamentary Questions being tabled around body camera use by police, an issue where we introduced successful amendments last autumn at Conference. We will be continuing to meet more Parliamentarians and working with them on campaigns. If you have an idea for a campaign or policy work, do get in touch, or consider running to be our campaigns or policy officer.

- We've also had meetings with members of ALDC and the Party Body Forum. Common themes that have emerged from our discussions are the need for a central hub in the Party of diversity material and better information around who our members are, what protected characteristics and skills they have, and how we can ensure all levels of the Party have useful access to such data. We've also had discussions on improving the role of Regional Development Officers when it comes to diversity and outreach work. If you know of good work around this in your region, get in touch with us via email at info@ldcre.org.uk

- We've fed in our ideas into the consultations led by Diverse Matters, who have been running a focus group exercise for the Party.

We are currently looking to recruit members to fill multiple roles, Please fill in the Application form below if you're interested in filling any of them:

1)A Policy Officer for the Executive who will have responsibility for assisting the co-ordination of our efforts to shape party policy at all levels in the interests of our members and the groups we serve.

Natalie Chindipa is Head of Diversity for the federal party and so we asked her for some information about what her team does. If you face any difficulties related to your ethnicity, want support on engaging ethnic minority members in your local party or region, or want support in your campaigns and candidacy then she is a good person to contact:

We asked Chair Candy Piercy what the Campaign for Gender Balance could do to support aspiring female candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds. In an invaluable articile she outlines the support avaialble and calls for you to reach out for support if you are interested in being candidate and a BAME female, and if you aren't to encourage those who are to take the 1st step:

Unfortunately in this country, ethnic minority communities are disproportionately likely to live in onvercrowded and poor quality housing.

As we have seen during the pandemic this can lead to fatal consequences, as so sadly happened in the Grenfell disaster.

Executive Member Cllr. Rabina Khan has been campaigning on the issue of unsafe cladding, which disproportionately effects ethnic minority communites.