A TORY MP has called for the Bank of England to make an ethnic minority person the face of the new £50 note.
Helen Grant, the Conservative Member for Maidstone and The Weald, said the new £50 note should recognise the contribution made by Britain's BAME community.
Grant has suggested Mary Seacole, a British-Jamaican nurse who tended soldiers during the Crimean War, as one of the contenders to be featured on the new note.
Noor Inayat Khan, an Indian-origin British heroine of World War II, Suffragette Sophia Duleep Singh, and Sir Charles Kao, who pioneered the use of fibre-optic communications, are other deserving candidates, believes the Tory MP.
Grant said: “I believe the Governor of the Bank of England now has a unique opportunity to address an archaic stereotype, one that completely undermines the credible efforts towards diversity and inclusion that are indeed taking place at the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street."
Grant added that including “a person of diversity on our banknotes” would be a “fundamental shift from a national stereotype”.
The Banknote Diversity Bill will be brought back for a second reading on April 5.
