27 May 2011
The Green Party today expressed concern that former BNP member, and current independent London Assembly member, Richard Barnbrook, attended a meeting of potential governors for the London Ambulance Service (LAS).
Green Party activist Joseph Healy is chair of the LAS Patients' Forum. He has long been concerned with the LAS's lack of staff diversity, with only 9% of frontline personnel from non-white backgrounds, and an all-white board of directors. This reflects a failure on the part of the LAS to improve Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) representation.
Joseph Healy said: "40% of London's population come from a BME background, so the LAS's paltry 9% representation is nothing short of disgraceful. A person with views like Richard Barnbrook has no place in an organisation that must improve in this area."
Barnbrook has spoken out specifically against mixed race individuals, saying that the children of mixed race marriages are "washing out the identity of this country's indigenous people".
The Green Party have serious concerns at the prospect of Barnbrook becoming a governor of the LAS, and the damage this would cause to the LAS's commitment to rectify its record on BME representation.
Healy continued: "The Green Party calls upon the LAS to demonstrate that equality and inclusion will be proactively promoted in its frontline workforce, on its board and during its appointment of new governors."
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