Support for Sarah in Somerset
Chinese Liberal Democrats helped to organise a dinner on 23 June in Taunton, Somerset to support Parliamentary Candidate Sarah Yong. Selected earlier this year, Sarah will be standing in David Heath MP's seat in the constituency of Somerton and Frome in May 2015.
BC Project Founder Madam Christine Lee sponsored the dinner together with local Somerset businessman, Gary Li at China China Restaurant. Amongst the guests included community leaders from the Somerset Chinese Association as well as a number of second generation BBCs (British Born Chinese) keen to have a voice in Parliament.
In her impassioned speech, Madam Lee shared with the local Chinese community the importance of registering to vote in the UK and taking a stand on political issues. There are currently no elected MP of Chinese descent despite the Chinese being the 3rd largest ethnic minority group in the UK, she said.
Merlene Emerson, co-founder of Chinese Liberal Democrats shared the reasons why she and her colleagues had formed the organisation to encourage the Chinese living in Britain to get more involved in politics. However there was still some way to go as there were, for example, fewer than 10 Chinese councillors across the 3 major parties out of a total of 20,000 Councillors in the whole of England and Wales.
Sarah then spoke of her inspiration to enter politics and the large part that her late father had played in her life though he had passed away when she was only 15. Born and brought up in the UK, she is able to represent the traditional British in rural Somerset as well as the aspirations of the younger generation.
"I hope all the Chinese in Somerton and Frome give Sarah Yong their full support and vote for her to be the first Chinese MP in UK in the 2015 General Elections" said Cllr Sam Li, Deputy Mayor of Lewes who had travelled with many others to Somerset in support of Sarah.