Pregnant Bangladeshi-Heritage MP Claims She Was Told Asians Are More Likely To Abort Baby Girls
A pregnant MP was told by a colleague they thought Asian people were more likely to abort baby girls, an investigation into racism in parliament has found.
Tulip Siddiq, who is of Bangladeshi-heritage, told a fellow MP in the Commons she was pregnant.
But she said the MP expressed surprise that doctors had told her the sex of her baby.
“Speaking to a colleague of a mine, she looked at me in astonishment and said you know you’re having a girl because normally they don’t tell people of Asian origin they’re having a girl because you know, then Asian people decide,” Siddiq told ITV News.
She added: “I looked at her and I couldn’t believe what she was saying.”
Siddiq was also told when she was running to become the Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn that she should use her husband’s English surname as “people wouldn’t vote for ‘Tulip Siddiq’.”
The revelation came as part of an ITV News survey of black and minority ethnic (BAME) MPs.
It found that more than half (51%) had experienced racism or racial profiling from colleagues.
The figure rose to 62% when including incidents of racism or racial profiling across the parliamentary estate, where thousands of staffers, security, police, journalists and contractors work.
An overwhelming majority (92%) said they found it more difficult to become an MP because of their ethnicity, while 83% said it had made their work more difficult.
Four in five of the MPs (81%) also said they had experienced racism from the public.
In total, 37 of the 65 BAME MPs, including Tories, Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians, responded to the survey.
A police officer came to physically escort me out of the member’s tea room even though he was told I was a member of parliament
Shadow equalities secretary Dawn Butler said she was once escorted out of a room in parliament by security.
“A police officer came to physically escort me out of the member’s tea room even though he was told I was a member of parliament,” she...
