Lord Sheikh hosted an event for CMF Youth where the guest speaker was Simon Woolley, Director of Operation Black Vote on the importance of ethnic minority participation in politics.

In his address Lord Sheikh said it was important that the BME community should get more actively involved in the political scene both at local and national level. The BME community now constitutes around 10% of the population. The total number of Parliamentarians in both Houses is about 1450 and the total number of Parliamentarians from the BME community is around 80. We would like to see at least 145 British politicians who are from the BME community. Lord Sheikh also stressed the importance of the BME to vote at the next general election and if they have not yet registered that they should do so immediately. He also emphasised that people from the BME community must also join and vote for the political party of their choice and not sit on the sidelines.