“ when Labour MP Dawn Butler won her Brent South seat in 2005, she became only the third black woman ever to sit in the House of Commons - particularly depressing when you consider that the first, Diane Abbott, won her seat more than 20 years ago. It was sad, then, but predictable, that Butler would encounter racist attitudes. One one occasion, the Tory MP David Heathcote-Amory demanded to know what Butler was doing in the members’ section of the terrace, and asked if she was an MP. “I said, ‘Yes, I am actually. Are you?’ He turned round and said, ‘They’re letting anybody in nowadays.’