Ethnic minorities should be on £50 notes, activists say

British activists are calling for people from ethnic minority backgrounds to feature on the new £50 note.

The Bank of England is looking for suggestions for scientists who could be depicted on the new note, and have received 114,000 nominations from the British public.

The list has been whittled down to 800,and Bank of England governor Mark Carney will make the final choice next year.

But campaigners say the shortlist is not representative of the UK today, with 14 per cent of the nation from ethnic minorities.

On Sunday, a letter published in The Times called for the next two people featured on the note to be from those backgrounds.

“We do not lack candidates, and arguably their achievements were the greater for having been made at a time when many careers were effectively closed to them through colonial rules, racism or the legacy of slavery,” the letter read. “However, no one from an ethnic minority has yet featured on a banknote.”

The letter was signed by more than 200 high-profile Britons, including poet Benjamin Zephaniah, journalist Yasmin Alibhai Brown and MPs from across the political spectrum. It sparked a wider campaign.

A petition launched on Monday has more than 700 signatures so far, bringing together campaigns by political commentator Patrick Vernon and humanitarian Zehra Zaidi.

“It is certainly about time that Britain’s institutions better reflect the diversity of our society,” said Joseph Willits from the Council for Arab-British Understanding, who also signed the letter.

The campaign issued a list of potential candidates who “have shaped UK society through their thought innovation, leadership or values”.

These include Crimean War nurse Mary Seacole, who was from Jamaica, and Second World War heroines Noor Inayat Khan, Violette Szabo and Odette Hallowes.