Baroness Verma
Baroness Verma has been a peer since 2006. She became a member of the Conservative Party in 1999, after her interest in the Conservative Party was inspired by her father. He always encouraged her to form her own opinions in politics rather than follow the status quo as many believed that the Conservative Party was not supposed to be the party of choice for anyone of colour. Baroness Verma decided not to follow this expectation of her as a BAME woman and preferred Conservative values. As a woman from an ethnic minority with a family background in business, she believed that being a Conservative would better benefit her own community and family because the Party encouraged enterprise and promoted opportunities to progress economically. She thinks this is one of the key principles that only the Conservatives offer and can greatly benefit ethnic minority communities in the UK.
A leading voice for improving diversity and inclusion both in the UK and globally, her role in the Conservative party working with former Prime Minister Theresa May and former leaders William Hague and Michael Howard, supported the acknowledgement that the Party needed to widen its appeal and reach further than their traditional base. It was with their encouragement and leadership that Baroness Verma travelled to traditional Tory constituencies across the country and made herself known in constituencies that had not had a BAME candidate before. Within a year, she was witnessing and supporting changes in the party. In the 2000/2001 elections she got to the finals of 11 out of 13 seats and in the 2005 elections she found herself in an all-female final of three candidates, two of which were BAME.
Going forward, Baroness Verma has high hopes for the Party. She knows that the past twenty years have demonstrated that change is not only possible but does actually happen. She has seen the political environment that her father worked with in the 1960’s make huge strides forward. She found people were willing to listen to her to learn what the Party was really about and why she believed, especially for people from ethnic minority communities, that it is the Party of choice for people of a BAME background. She makes the distinction between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party when it comes to progress in ethnic diversity, “The Conservative Party have seats and send and aspire to send larger numbers of women and women of colour to fight them; the Labour Party turn certain seats into ‘diversity seats’ which leads to women of colour being limited in the Party generally. This is clearly shown in Labour’s higher leadership ranks.”
Baroness Verma’s passion is to see economic diversity so that people from diverse economic backgrounds are included across the spectrum. “I recognise there has to be more change, but I have to give credit where it is due, the will and leadership behind change is there and is demonstrated by where we are today.”