The taskforce aims to take practical steps to help women from ethnic minority groups enter public life. The pilot event, held in the Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London, is the first in a series of regional events across the country, which aim to raise awareness of the role and benefits of being a local councillor, encourage more Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) women to consider stepping forward, and providing advice on how to find out more about becoming a local councillor.

Baroness Uddin, said, "Whilst there are over 2.3 million ethnic minority women in this country, the number in local government roles is shockingly low, with around 168 BAME women councillors out of 20,000 in England. One of the Taskforce's actions to address this under-representation is to develop outreach programmes such as events in the community to raise awareness and understanding of the role of a councillor, explain the skills involved and encourage women to step forward to become councillors."

The taskforce is taking practical action to address under-representation, such as:

• Provide mentoring to women interested in becoming a councillor
• Hold outreach events in communities to make the role of councillors more widely known and better understood
• Work with organisations such as the Local Government Association, Operation Black Vote and the Fawcett Society to develop awareness training and to encourage more women to step forward for roles in public life.
• Establish networking groups
• Support building stronger data on BAME women councillors
• Work with local councils, political parties and organisations like IdeA to improve the recruitment, training and selection and support given to candidates

The members of the Councillor's Taskforce include:

• Cllr Lurline Champagine (London: Harrow), Cons, Black
• Cllr Maya de Souza (London: Camden), Green, Asian
• Cllr Meral Ece (London: Islington), Lib Dem, Turkish
• Cllr Anwara Ali (London: Tower Hamlets), Lab, Asian
• Cllr Humaira Javed (South East: Windsor and Maidenhead), Lib Dem, Asian
• Carol Francis, (Former Cllr South West: Gloucester), Lab, Black
• Cllr Mimi Harker (East of England: Chiltern District), Cons, Asian
• Cllr Manjula Sood (East Midlands: Leicester City), Lab, Asian
• Cllr Salma Yaqoob (West Midlands: Sparkbrook, Birmingham City) , Respect, Asian
• Cllr Svetlana Rodgers (Yorkshire & Humberside), Lib Dem, Eastern European
• Cllr Mia Jones (North West: Chester City), Lib Dem, Chinese
• Thea Khamis (Former Cllr North East: Derwentside), Lab, Palestinian Arab
• Yvonne Jardine (Former Cllr Wales: Swansea), Lab, Black
• Neelam Bakshi (Former Cllr Scotland), Lab, Asian

Commenting on behalf of the Green Party, Cllr Maya de Souza, said, "The taskforce will help ensure that the needs and priorities of all sections of society are understood and taken into account. It will also ensure that important sections of our society are not left feeling marginalised and alienated - this is a major problem in our society today. Having more BAME women councillors in our Town Halls is not only good for local democracy but this is an important stepping stone for greater engagement in politics on a national level. We strongly support this initiative and believe it is an important and positive step forward in terms of strengthening our democracy."