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NEW BILL: Helen Grant

VICE-CHAIR of the Conservative Party Helen Grant presented a bill in the Commons last week calling on the Bank of England to act on the fact that no person of colour has appeared on a British banknote in 400 years.

Grant’s Ten Minute Rule Bill urged the Bank of England to improve the representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people on UK banknotes.

It also asked the Bank to ensure its selection processes are inclusive, to generate a more representative list from which the Bank's Governor chooses the new 'face' of any banknote.

Grant said: "The new £50 note provides the Bank of England with a perfect opportunity to meet its requirements under this Bill and to send a message from one of the greatest institutions of the land that the contribution of diverse communities to the building of Britain really matters and is truly valued.

“In doing so they would also ensure the UK’s currency is truly reflective of the great diversity and inclusivity of the Modern Britain I know and love."

Ten Minute Rule Bills are a type of Private Members’ Bill. A backbench MP may make his or her case for a new Bill in a speech lasting up to ten minutes.

An opposing speech may also be made before the House decides whether or not the Bill should be introduced. If the MP is successful, the Bill is taken to have had its first read.

A second reading of the Bill will take place today (Apr 5). It builds on the Campaign for Banknotes of Colour, launched by a letter to the Bank's Governor signed by over 300 celebrities, actors, race and equalities activists, and politicians of all parties.

It campaigns to have an ethnic minority face on the new £50 note.

The Campaign has criticised the Bank's process for choosing a new face for the new £50 note. Only 1 per cent of the 989 eligible scientists nominated are BAME scientists.

Among the campaign’s high profile supporters is Baroness Doreen Lawrence.

In January this year, she told the Bank's Chief Economist Andy Haldane and the audience at the Bank's One Bank Flagship Seminar: "We never see positive images of ethnic minority role models, only negative images.

“We need to start changing young people’s mindsets. They need visible role models across our institutions and show that this is where you can get to."

The following month Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Robert Jenrick MP also backed the campaign when he said: “The new £50 note should symbolise our values as a country.”

He added that “Banknotes are symbols of identity and project our country and values to the world, so they should reflect all of our people, our history and our future as a great open and diverse nation”

Zehra Zaidi of the Campaign for Banknotes of Colour said: "Mark Carney, the Bank's Governor, could leave a powerful legacy, that builds upon his own words: going beyond diversity, to have truly inclusive policies at the Bank of England. The invisibility of ethnic minorities on banknotes sends a damaging message."

"The Bank of England has problems with the retention and progression of its ethnic minority staff. This new £50 is a powerful symbolic opportunity to show the Bank's commitment to equalities, and put its policies into practice via the most visible form of representation: a banknote carried by people in their purses or wallets."

The Bank of England lags behind other national or federal banks around the world such as Canada and New Zealand who have ensured ethnic diversity on banknotes, with civic rights leader Viola Desmond on the Canadian $10 note and Maori leader Sir Apirana Ngata on the New Zealand $50 note.

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