Caroline Lucas has apologised for including only white women in her proposed female anti-Brexit cabinet.
The Green Party MP on Sunday called on leading women in politics politicians to come together to prevent a “crash-out Brexit”, and wrote to 10 other female politicians opposed to a no-deal break with the EU and invited them to form an “emergency cabinet”.
But she faced an almost immediate backlash over the idea, and in particular over the lack of BAME women included in the list.
Labour’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, who is black, tweeted it “won’t work, whatever the gender of the participants”.
Labour MP Clive Lewis called it a “very interesting proposal”, but asked: “Where are the BAME women politicians?”
Lucas replied she would love Abbott to be involved.
In a statement on
Facebook on Monday, Lucas said: “An all-white list of women isn’t right. I should have reached out further and thought more deeply about who, and what kind of politics, an all-white list represents. I apologise.”Thanks for all the comments on my proposal - I wanted to start a debate & that’s happened. But it’s also thrown up important questions about who is on the list and why.An all-white list of women isn’t right. For that I apologise. Statement here.https://t.co/a2Y6Y1Okji— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) August 12, 2019She added that she wanted to include the leadership or deputy leadership of “all relevant parties in Westminster”, adding: “I wanted all parts of the
UK to be part of this conversation.”
“I realise I did not get this right,” she said.
“There are women of colour colleagues who are standing up to this government’s reckless gamble with Britain’s future, and it was wrong to overlook them,” she wrote.
“I apologise to them and all who’ve been hurt by their exclusion. There are always lessons to be learnt, and I will do my utmost to support, value and uplift women of colour working in politics, particularly those with whom I share common ground.”
Among the women she did invite to join her were Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson and Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.Related... Caroline Lucas Calls For All-Women Cabinet To Stop No-Deal
Brexit And Hold Referendum Three Years On, Brexit Has Left
Britain In Political Paralysis Corbyn Plots Commons Ambush To Block Johnson's No-Deal Brexit