John Stewart was elected MP for Lymington, Hampshire on 8th January, 1833. 

On paper, he seemed a textbook member of Britain’s elite: wealthy, well-connected, educated in England, and a plantation owner. 

But Stewart’s mother was an enslaved woman, making him considered by many to be Britain’s first Black MP.

Yet Stewart did not enter Parliament to challenge slavery or injustice. Rather, he was an unapologetic defender of the plantation system, opposed the abolition of slavery, fought taxes on sugar, and later resisted ending the exploitative “apprenticeship” system that replaced slavery after 1833. 

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover how Stewart campaigned to benefit financially from the ending of slavery; uncover the other mixed-race MPs who could qualify as Britain’s ‘first’ non-white Parliamentarians; and consider how it wasn’t until 1987 that Parliament truly became more racially representative…  

Further Reading:

• ‘Who were the first MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds?’ (Commons Library, 2020): https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/who-were-the-first-mps-from-ethnic-minority-backgrounds/

• ‘John Stewart, politician’ (They Did, I Can Too) : https://theydidicantoo.org/john-stewart-politician

• ‘Black British History - the Labour black sections and Britain's first black MPs’ (Simeon Brown, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEMnQs1quNo

#Black #Politics #Victorian #Person

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026

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