Diane’s 20th Anniversary Celebrations Kick Off
Celebrations for the 20th Anniversary of Diane Abbott’s election into Parliament began yesterday at a reception in the Terrace pavilion overlooking the river Thames.
The celebrations mark twenty years since Diane first became MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, and strode into the history books as Britain’s first female black MP.
A number of notable faces were present among the guests at the reception including Mayor Jules Pipe, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Trisha Goddard and Tim Campbell. MP Dawn Butler and Baroness Howells of St David were there to offer their support to Diane on this special anniversary.
Representatives from the Fawcett Women’s Society were also on hand to talk about the problems of minority ethnic female representation in politics. The Society have launched a campaign to highlight the lack of minority ethnic female MPs. Currently Ms. Butler and Ms. Abbott are the only two black female MPs and there has never been an Asian female MP.
Speaking at the event Diane said:
“I’m very pleased to have got this far. There have been times over the past 20 years when I have felt like giving up but then I have remembered the hard work and determination it took me to get here in the first place and that has always pushed me to continue. I came into politics because I had a desire to help ordinary people, and that is what I am most proud of today. The fact that when I walk around in Hackney, my constituents stop me in the street to give me their support.”
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