Bernie Grant

In 1987, the first ever Black MPs were elected.

Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant.

And in the media landscape, Black stories were crossing over into mainstream television.

Including the show that transformed how Black British life was represented on screen.

There was no scope for women, let alone ethnic minorities, even though from the 1950s and 1960s onwards, we've had a significant ethnic minority population in this country We didn't get a non-white person elected to the House of Commons.

In the modern era, there were a couple of MPs round about the late 1800s, but in the modern era, the very first non-white person elected to Parliament was in 1987, and from memory, I think it was Bernie Grant, and there might have been a couple of others that same year.

There was no Muslim in Parliament until 1997.

Now, the House of Commons is much more representative of our country, and in fact, I would say that when you take into account age differences and education differences, the House of Commons now looks like Britain, more or less, although it's still rather too many men compared to women.

He could laugh at black people and laugh at his constituents.

And that's why for me, whether or not you were in Keir Starmer's office or not, whether or not you had your Windrush moment, whether or not, you know, maybe post Bernie Grant, there was some sort of like promise is irrelevant to me.

It's very much relevant to me, David Lammy.

And if you're going to be noted in history as some of the best of us, we have to correct that record and let the future kids know that this is David Lammy was, you know, was a lone wolf.