In 2021, we at AKADi Magazine, profiled the leading British Ghanaians in UK politics in our sixth digital magazine issue. We called it ‘Ghanaians in Politics’.
Ahead of the 4 July UK Parliamentary elections, we take a glance back at the Ghanaian names in the UK’s political scene that we covered, look at what they’ve been doing since and highlight some newer faces on the political scene.
There are 650 constituencies in the UK. A new set of constituency boundaries will be used for the 2024 election. This means that some constituency boundaries may have changed since the last election.
Check out the first in a series of posts about British Ghanaians in politics.
Still a Lord
Lord Paul Yaw Boateng is a British Labour Party politician, who was the MP for Brent South between 1987 and 2005. He became the UK's first Black cabinet minister in May 2002 when he was appointed as chief secretary to the Treasury.
Although born in the UK, he spent his formative years in Ghana, returning to England during the 1966 military coup in Ghana when he was 15 years old with his English mother and sister.
His father, Kwaku Boateng, was a well-known lawyer and parliamentarian in President Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s government.
Lord Boateng is most noted for his work against police brutality.
He was an executive member of the National Council for Civil Liberties and, between 1977 and 1981, was legal advisor to the Scrap Sus (suspect) campaign.
This campaign challenged the stop and search law in England and Wales. This law allowed police to apprehend, search and even arrest, anyone found in a public place if they suspected that they intended to commit an offence.
The law's implementation sparked racial profiling concerns, followed by backlash and uprisings in the early 80s from mainly Black communities challenging policing in the country.
Lord Boateng became a member of the House of Lords on 1 July 2010. He was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the King’s 2023 Birthday Honours for services as a trustee of the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award.
Join us in the next post where we will be profiling British Ghanaian politicians standing for re-election on 4 July.
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