Shabana Mahmood, Britain’s new Lord Chancellor

“THERE ONCE WAS a little girl in Small Heath, one of the poorest areas of Birmingham, who worked behind the till in her parents’ corner shop.” So said Shabana Mahmood during her swearing-in speech as Britain’s new Lord Chancellor on July 16th. Though she was inspired as a child by “Kavanagh QC”, a TV drama about a brilliant barrister “with working class roots”, she never dreamed she would find herself “among the holders of this ancient role”, she went on. Looking back, as is customary, at her predecessors to identify a Lord Chancellor with whom she could draw personal parallels, she joked it was tough: no “Brummie” had yet done the job. No Muslim had either.

Ms Mahmood is the most prominent Muslim woman in a Parliament that has more women and is ethnically more diverse than any before. Though Labour boasts the largest number of ethnic-minority MPs (66 out of 90 elected on July 4th) this is not reflected in its new cabinet, which has only three ministers with such a background. As Lord Chancellor Ms Mahmood’s job combines upholding the rule of law with a ministerial post: justice secretary. Recent Conservative cabinets have boasted more diversity. In 1997, when Labour was last newly elected, Tony Blair appointed an all-white cabinet.