Elections 2022: 'Why are black politicians still so rare in Derby?'

Mr Shillingford was elected to the council in 1982

Ahead of the local elections on 5 May, Derby's first black councillor has been urging the city's African-Caribbean community to get involved in local politics.

"If you don't join the party, you cannot expect to be selected."

Lennin Shillingford turns 80 this year.

Mr Shillingford, who was born in the Caribbean country of Dominica, came to Britain in 1960.

He was elected to Derby City Council in 1982 and served for eight years.

In that time, he said he made considerable efforts to try to get Derby's African-Caribbean community involved - but there was little interest.

"I made a conscious effort to try to get some people in but nobody wanted to come in," he said.

"At the time the West Indians, the people around me anyway, were more interested in sports.

"We obviously had cricket teams, football teams, we were more interested in sport, we had businesses.

"[We were] more interested in being a part of the community rather than setting things up for ourselves."

Fast forward 40 years and, despite Derby having a strong African-Caribbean community, none of the political parties who are standing for city council elections on Thursday have a single candidate from an African-Caribbean background.

In the past, Mr Shillingford said, prejudice played its part in people's reluctance to get involved.

"There was a lot of prejudice, there was a lot of work that needed doing to get [awareness of local politics] into the community," he said.

"Me personally I hadn't had much [prejudice] but I can recognise it.

"People were going to work and being discriminated against. People were applying for jobs and not getting [them]."

However, he said that since the 1980s, while he has seen Derby's Asian community become more engaged in local politics, he has not observed this within the black community.

He said there was a need for the parties to select diverse candidates in the first place.

"One or two people are going to the wards but they're not being selected," he said.

"But I'm against tokenism. I'm totally against it. We should select people because of their ability and not who they are."

But he added that his message for black people in Derby was to get involved in the city's political groups.

"Before you become a councillor you've got to join the party. All the political parties are open to candidates. And if you don't join the party you cannot expect to be selected.

"Join the political parties and get involved, whichever party you want to join, you join it, and then you can put yourself up for a candidate and then hopefully you get elected," he said.

Derby City Council leader Chris Poulter said he hoped to overcome the boundaries that stopped people getting involved

"We've advertised, we've tried to encourage minority groups to get involved but it's a challenge for people," said Derby Conservative leader Chris Poulter, who is the current council leader.

"I'm disappointed. I wish we could get over these boundaries. We will do whatever we can to encourage more people from other backgrounds to join us."

Nadine Peatfield, deputy leader of Derby Labour Group, said it was vital Derby's council was representative

Nadine Peatfield, deputy leader of Derby Labour Group, said: "I have been working really hard to try to bring in more people of colour to the council.

"It's vitally important we represent all of our communities.

"We can't represent people if we can't understand what their situation is, what their upbringing was, what their experience in life is.

"We want a rounded, representative council that looks like our city looks like."

Ruth Skelton, leader of Derby Liberal Democrats, said councils needed to look like their communities

Ruth Skelton, leader of Derby Liberal Democrats, said: "We have had councillors before from a Caribbean background and I think we may well do this time next year.

"Groups on councils need to represent and look like their communities. We do need to improve on getting people in from the African and Caribbean community."

Alan Graves, from Derby Reform, said it was important to attract a range of people

Alan Graves, leader of the Derby Reform party, said: "It's very important to have a diverse range. I would welcome anybody coming into our party to take up some candidature.

"Unfortunately, people find politics a difficult area to be involved in but people are more than welcome.

"I think it's important we get a range of people to give a different point of view."

Helen Hitchcock said the party hoped to reach out to diverse candidates

Helen Hitchcock, the coordinator for the Derby Greens, said: "We are relatively new in Derby and I am hoping that as we become more established and more visible, we can reach out to and encourage more diverse candidates to stand.

"In a city as diverse as Derby, it's ludicrous."

A full list of candidates can be found here.

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