I am very concerned that the Party Leadership is either not willingly or able to grasp the nettle and accept that like it or not the only way we will get good ethnic minority candidates selected is by some form of positive action

When candidates of the calibre of Meral Ece fail to make it I really question how seriously the Party takes Ming Campbell’s declared commitment to make the Party in elected Office reflect the communities it serves.

The fact that Meral Ece failed to secure a higher position when women generally did well in this contest can only send one message to the ethnic minority members - the Party is not ready to trust ethnic minority candidates to win for us.

If we are not prepared to select ethnic minority candidates for the GLA then we can take it as read that te Party has no intention of selecting any ethnic minority candidate in winnable Parliamentary seats.

Only radical action by the leadership will now convince me that the Party is genuinely concerned to make progress on addressing the ethnic deficit. If this means it has to change the rules, bring in quotas for a short time or even use part of the £200,000 fund to as Graham suggests “BRIBE” key seats to adopt an ethnic minority candidate - then that is what they must do.

It is not good enough for Simon Hughes to hide behind the fact that we are a Federal Party and as such not able to direct local parties on who to select.

Nor is his lament that “this is not good enough” going to cut any ice with the ethnic minority membership at large, let alone the candidates who are being passed over simply because they are not white.

Graham, I would not rush into revamping Reflecting Britain just yet - let us first see how the Party is going to reflect its membership in elected offices first

I have said it before and I will say it again if the Party wants to retain the high level of support it has enjoyed from ethnic minority voters in recent years it had better find a way of promoting ethnic minority candidates before too long otherwise it will only have itself to blame if some of our most respected activists simply walk away - or worse walk into another more ethnic friendly Party.