Britain’s most ethnically diverse Cabinet ever

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has selected the most ethnically diverse Cabinet the UK has ever had with Sajid Javid becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer; Priti Patel as Home Secretary; Alok Sharma as International Development Secretary; Rishi Sunak as Chief Secretary to Treasury; James Cleverley as Party chairman and Kwasi Kwarteng as Minister for business, energy and industrial strategy. These Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Ministers represent 18% of cabinet. According to the Institute for Government, there have been only five full cabinet members from such backgrounds ever. Some 14% of the population in England and Wales come from ethnic minority backgrounds, according to the 2011 census.

In addition, eight out of the 33 positions (24%) in Mr Johnson's cabinet - including those who are not full members - have gone to women. This is slightly lower than Theresa May’s Cabinet of 2016 and Gordon Brown’s Cabinet of 2007, which both achieved 30% women, and is still far less than expected given that women and girls make up 51% of the population (England and Wales), according to the 2011 census.

Critics have argued that Mr Johnson’s Cabinet is elitist with 64% of those attending cabinet from fee-paying schools and 48% having attended either Oxford or Cambridge university cited the BBC, according to figures from tTe Sutton Trust.

Previous BAME Cabinet Members

According to the Institute for Government, there have been only five full BAME cabinet members ever:

Paul Boateng, Chief Secretary to the Treasury under Tony Blair
Valerie Amos, International Development Secretary and Leader of the House of Lords under Tony Blair
Sayeeda Warsi, Minister without portfolio under David Cameron
Sajid Javid, Secretary of state for culture, media and sport and Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills under David Cameron, as well as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and Home Secretary under Theresa May
Priti Patel, Secretary of State for International Development under Theresa May
In addition to that, Patricia Scotland attended cabinet as attorney general and Sadiq Khan attended when his ministerial responsibilities as transport minister were on the agenda - both under Gordon Brown

For further details about Ministers, click here