The changing face of diversity in the UK cabinet
By Parveen Akhtar, Reader in Political Science and International Relations, Aston University
Tahir Abbas, Professor of Criminology and Global Justice and Director of the Centre for Radicalisation, Inclusion, and Social Equity at Aston University in Birmingham, Aston University
Andy Burnham’s first cabinet includes four ministers from visible ethnic minority backgrounds: home secretary Shabana Mahmood, energy security secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, AI minister Kanishka Narayan, and Lisa Nandy as culture secretary. A decade ago, this team alone would probably have generated headlines. Now, it has barely registered.
This silence on the makeup of the cabinet tells us something important about ethnic diversity in British politics. We have entered what might be called the “post-first”…
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Thursday, July 30, 2026