Government considers ‘ethnic rebranding’

Home Office Minister Hazel Blears has suggested that ethnic minority groups could be ‘renamed’ in order to express pride in both their ethnic roots and their Britishness.

In an interview with ‘The Times’, Ms Blears said that she found the idea of US-style hyphenated terms, such as African-American “quite interesting” and said that she would talk to communities to see how they felt about titles such as Pakistani-British or Indian-British.

Ms Blears said: “I am going to talk to people and ask how does that feel? It is about your identity and I think it’s really important.

“If you want a society that is really welded together, there are certain things that unite us, because you are British, but you can be a bit different too.”

A Downing Street spokesperson stressed that the idea had been suggested to Ms Blears to be discussed in meetings with Muslim leaders and was not something the government was proposing or suggesting.

However, the Muslim Council of Britain greeted the suggestion with caution. The MCB’s General Secretary Sir Iqbal Sacranie told The Times: “What of the second generations? Why should they be defined as other than British?

Sir Iqbal also said that these forms of identity had been used before and had failed.

Shadow Home Affairs spokesperson Edward Garnier also said that Asian British people in his constituency regarded themselves as British anyway. He said: “They don’t need a government minister to tell them how to describe themselves.”

Ms Blears held a party with Muslim community leaders in Oldham last week and further meetings are planned in Burnley, Leicester, Leeds, Birmingham and London.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke is due to hold follow-up talks with Muslim leaders on September 20, in order to outline “concrete proposals”, Downing Street said.

(KMcA/SP)