Number of BAME members of the European Parliament falls by 20% with Brexit

Campaigners fear racism will become even less of a priority in Brussels following UK departure

The European Parliament's seat in Strasbourg (AP)

Britain's departure from the EU has dramatically cut black and ethnic minority representation in the European Parliament, a new analysis has found.

The number of BAME members of the legislature has fallen by 20 per cent following Brexit, undoing most of the gains at the last election.

Just 24 out of 705 MEPs are people of colour, down from 30 – despite an estimate 50 million estimated to be living in Europe.

The UK had the highest number of ethnic minority MEPs in the 2019 mandate - at seven - with only 13 of the 28 EU member states electing any at all.

The parliament has also lost all six of its MEPs of south Asian descent with Britain's departure, despite such communities existing in other European countries.

“Brexit day is a sad day for racial diversity in the EU," said Karen Taylor, chair of the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), said.

"But it is also an opportunity for EU institutions to step up their game and finally take measures to ensure representation of racial and ethnic minorities in their structures.

"We will also continue to act in solidarity with anti-racist activists in the UK.”

Racial diversity at the EU institutions hit the headlines in July last year after a black MEP said he was asked to leave the European Parliament by an official on his first day in the job.

Magid Magid, a Green who represented Yorkshire and the Humber until last Friday, said he was "visibly different" to other MEPs because he was black, adding: "I don't have the privilege to hide my identity".

Campaigners at ENAR say that ethnic minorities are already poorly represented through all institutions, though the EU does not collect official data on its workforce.

The group says that "anecdotal evidence suggests that the few members of staff of racial or ethnic minority background are often from the United Kingdom" and that after Brexit there is a risk that "even the acknowledgement of racism as a major issue will decline".

The new European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was accused of being oblivious to concerns about race after she described her new all-white cabinet as representing "Europe in all its diversity".

She also sparked criticism after naming a commission post dealing with immigration policy the Commissioner for Protecting Our European Way of Life.