David Cameron has said he hopes to see a British Asian become prime minister in his lifetime.
Speaking at the GG2 awards, which celebrates Asian achievements, he added that there were “too few people from ethnic minorities in top positions” reported BBC
Culture Secretary Sajid Javid was named the most influential Asian in the UK.
Nobel prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who lives in Birmingham and campaigns for female education after being shot by the Taliban, came second.
One Direction’s Zayn Malik was also in the top 10.
Mr Cameron, speaking about Mr Javid, said: “I know we have more to do to encourage true opportunity and diversity in our country but doesn’t it say something about our country that in two generations you go from coming to our country with so little to sitting round a cabinet table. That’s the sort of country we’re building in the United Kingdom.”
‘Glaring absence’
Mr Javid’s father arrived in Britain from Pakistan in 1961 and worked as a bus driver. The culture secretary, who was born in Rochdale, left a career at Deutsche Bank to work in politics.
The prime minister said: “In Britain today there are still too few people from ethnic minorities in top positions”.
Mr Cameron said: “The absence is glaring in the boardrooms of FTSE 250, in the chambers of the Houses of Parliament, on football managers’ benches, on High Court judges’ benches and in our fighter jets, our naval ships and our armed battalions around the world. And I’m clear that this
Sajid Javid, Britain’s secretary of state – or cabinet minister – for culture, media and sport, has disclosed that his father was from India and his mother from Pakistan. This obviously makes him half-Indian and, therefore, the first person of Indian origin to be a cabinet minister in Britain.
Speaking at a British Asian dinner Wednesday night, which released a “Power List” of British Asians, which had him at pole position, Javid surprised the audience of 600-odd guests by stating his father was from India.
He had always been described as being of Pakistani origin, which he partially is, but his Indian connection was unknown publicly.
Javid, who has an English wife, is a rising star in Conservative, nay British, politics.
A former banker, he has risen swiftly through the ranks and is even tipped to become a future party leader.
Previously, Keith Vaz was a minister of state in a Labour government. But no one of Indian descent has ever been appointed a cabinet minister in Britain until now.
In 2010, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who is of Pakistani extraction, became a cabinet minister, the first Asian to be thus elevated.