BY NAN News Writer
News Americas, LONDON, England, Tues. 25, 2022: The British Caribbean Diaspora is among those around the globe reacting to the historic appointment of the UK’s first ever prime minister of color, Rishi Sunak.
“Today is a historic day in British politics, with the appointment of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister of the UK,” Bishop Dr. Desmond Jaddoo, the Chair & Director of the Windrush National Organisation, told News Americas in a statement. “Britain has always celebrated its diversity but has never embraced it. It is time that this is done and having a Prime Minister whose parents are African/Asian, I would hope would bring greater understanding of the inequality faced by the Windrush Generations and their descendants, by ensuring that the playing field is levelled.”
“No matter the political background it is one of the utmost achievements in the world that our young people tomorrow’s leaders can aspire to know, no matter your background you can make it, providing that the Prime Minister has the courage to effectively level the playing field of inequality,” Jaddoo added.
On Twitter, MP and Shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, whose parents’ David and Rosalind Lammy were born in Guyana, once a British colony, also saluted the historical significance of the moment.
“This is a hugely significant moment for the UK’s visible diversity,” Lammy tweeted. “The country has come a very long way since my father arrived in 1956. He would never have believed our city would be home to a Hindu Prime Minister and a Muslim Mayor.”
Twitter user John Oladele noted on the social media platform that while the moment is “great,” Sunak “must recognize the FACT that #Windrush1947 Caribbean people of African descent laid the foundation for this historic moment.”
While Historian Olivette Otele tweeted: “Already asked to write commentary on race & new PM. What is there to say, my people? Cornel West said it all. ‘Black faces in higher places’ only, doesn’t work and for so many reasons. We need much more meat on that bone of contention.”
Sunak became Britain’s third prime minister of the year today after King Charles III welcomed the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to Buckingham Palace and invited him to become Prime Minister and form a new government. Sunak quickly got to work naming his cabinet that shockingly included the controversial Home Secretary under the Liz Truss administration, Sue-Ellen Cassiana Braverman, who quit last week for breaching government rules. Her reappointment on Tuesday came hours after Sunak pledged to lead the Conservative party with “integrity, professionalism and accountability” on the steps of No 10.
The move riled the group Windrush Lives as it tweeted: “The newly appointed, formerly disgraced Home Secretary, along with the newly appointed, formerly disgraced Lord Chancellor/Justice Secretary, represent a new, old low for the rights of asylum seekers and migrants, and for justice for Britons, including the Windrush generation.”
