Black History Month

Olivia Bailey Excerpts

Thursday 22nd October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Olivia Bailey (Reading West and Mid Berkshire) (Lab)]

It has been a real privilege to listen to so many powerful speeches this afternoon. My hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) reminded us to ask the question, “Have you done your part?” and told us never to be afraid to make noise, which are really important points. My hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) reminded us that black history is correctly British history. My hon. Friend the Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill (Bell Ribeiro-Addy) just gave a really powerful speech, reminding us of the stark reality today, where we find that racism is not just whispered but amplified.

As this is my first speech in the Chamber as the newly elected Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, I would like to start by paying tribute to my predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen). She is a brilliant campaigner who in her time as Chair shone a light on critical issues and secured significant policy change. Her work on bereavement leave for pregnancy loss in particular leaves a lasting legacy. In such debates, I always admired the way in which she shared stories that are not told often enough in this place, often from her own constituency. Therefore, when preparing for this important debate on Black History Month, I decided to spend some time looking in the royal Berkshire archives to tell one story from Reading’s black history.

I came across a man called Harvey De Pass. Harvey arrived on the HMT Empire Windrush in June 1948. After a brief dalliance with Staffordshire, he and his family moved to Reading. Harvey took up the role of Reading’s first community relations officer at the Reading council of community relations and spent years serving our community, in particular working with local schools.

In October 1970, Harvey organised a conference entitled, “Children in a Mixed Community”. At the time, he told the local paper:

“Our children aren’t immigrants…they know no home other than Britain”—

words that are just as poignant today. After a decade in that role, Harvey set up a local business, DePass Travel, on the Oxford Road. When Harvey died in 2012, he was remembered by the local community for his big heart and his love of cricket.

Harvey is just one example of the wonderful Windrush generation who have brought so much to Reading, with many working in iconic local businesses such as the Huntley & Palmers biscuit factory as well as at our Royal Berkshire hospital and on the town’s bus network. I am reminded of their stories every day when I drive through Reading as I pass the Reading black history mural, which depicts global figures alongside the local heroes who built Reading’s black community. When the site faced redevelopment, which threatened the mural’s future, it was local community campaigners—today’s Harvey De Passes—who successfully ensured that it was preserved for future generations.

As we have heard a lot today, the theme of this year’s Black History Month is “Honouring Our Communities.” As other hon. Members have said, this is about not just telling stories but confronting the inequalities that black people in our country continue to face at work, in healthcare and on the streets of our communities. The work of the Women and Equalities Committee shows how much more we have to do in that regard.

The Committee’s work on health shows that black women are still more than twice as likely to die in childbirth as white women, more likely to experience life-threatening complications, more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit and more likely to give birth preterm and to lose a baby to stillbirth. Black people are almost four times more likely to experience homelessness, and experience worse outcomes as they progress through the homelessness system. In the workplace, it is more difficult to progress and there are more barriers. Throughout all the Committee’s work. there is one terrible constant: wherever people are adversely affected—be that by policies, attitudes or actions—those impacts are disproportionately worse for people who are black.

That is why, as Chair of the Committee, I am determined to use our platform to hear from black voices on the issues that matter, to ensure that the Government listen, and to hold the Government to account on the promises they have made to the black community, whether on ethnicity pay gap reporting, improved maternal care, or ensuring that those affected by the Windrush scandal receive the support and compensation they are owed, because commitments are meaningful only when they lead to change. Our history is important, but honouring our communities means that we must actively confront inequality to truly commemorate the contributions of those who have made progress. I look forward to building on the Committee’s important work and ensuring that we continue to challenge inequality wherever we find it.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call the shadow Minister.