LONDON: David Cameron has expressed his desire to see a British-Asian Prime Minister in his lifetime.
The British prime minister is known to be a great friend of India and has earlier said he wants to see more Indians as part of Britain’s judiciary, armed forces and politics.
Cameron said at a leadership award recently, “Let us think big about what Britons of all backgrounds can achieve. When I hear ‘sir’, ‘your honour’ or ‘right honourable’, I want them to be followed by a British Asian name. One day I want to hear that title ‘Prime Minister’ followed by a British Asian name”.
Cameron recently said UK can learn so much from the epic text Ramayana which is relevant even more in modern times.
Cameron said, “When I look at the Ramayana and my understanding of the Hindu religion, there’s so much that you have to say about the importance of family, about the importance of community, about the importance of voluntary service – these are all the values that our country needs more of. So, as you celebrate your values, let’s make them our values, and let’s have more of them in Britain,” he said.
Cameron said, “In Britain today there are still too few people from ethnic minorities in top positions. The absence is glaring in the boardrooms, in the Chambers of the Houses of Parliament, football managers’ benches, on High Court judges benches, and in our fighter jets, our naval ships, our armed battalions around the world and I am clear this has to change, not to tick boxes, not to fill quotas but to realise our full potential. Britain will only be the best it can be when all its people are able to be all that they can be”.
By 2040, the number of foreign-born and non-white residents in UK is expected to double and account for a third of the population.
By 2070, white Britons may actually become a minority.
Professor David Coleman from the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford recently said that white Britons “might become a minority” in the UK in the next 57 years if current migration trends continue.
Professor Coleman told TOI recently that India “will be a very important factor” for this massive change in demographics.
The number of people born in India but presently living in England and Wales has already increased by over 52% in the last decade. In absolute numbers, the 6.94 lakh strong Indian-born population is now the largest foreign-born group in England and Wales.
It increased from 4.56 lakhs in 2011, according to new Census data.
According to the latest projections, the proportion of minority groups living in Britain will rise from 10% in 2006 to 40% by 2050.
Britain will therefore become the world’s most ethnically diverse countries.
Declining birth rates among Britons and increased migration are the two main factors for changing demographics in UK.
According to the data, around a fifth of people in the UK are non-white or non-British. This is expected to rise to 25% by 2025, 335 by 2040 and reach up to 38% by 2050. In England and Wales, 25% of births are already to foreign-born mothers.
Cameron therefore wants to “remove the barriers that stop people getting on”.
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