HOME Secretary Jack Straw today told his European counterparts how much strength and experience he had drawn from representing multi-cultural Blackburn.

Addressing a conference of European home affairs ministers in Manchester on the need to tackle racism, he spoke of his personal experience of the problem in his constituency.

Mr Straw said that for nearly 20 years he had represented the 'multi-cultural' Blackburn which included 20,000 people of the Muslim faith.

He said: "I am all too well aware of the need to make a difference. Such a constituency has more than its fair share of problems. But it also has enormous strengths. "Representing such a constituency has been an enjoyable, stimulating and enlightening experience from which I have gained much.

"There is much for us all to gain from diversity and we need to get that message across more widely."

Mr Straw said: "I have been involved in the fight against racism and anti-semitism throughout my life and am greatly encouraged by the extent to which concern about it has risen up the European agenda in recent years.

"But a vision is not enough. Nor are warm words. They need to be translated into concrete action to give everyone - whatever their colour or background - a real chance to better themselves and their families."

Mr Straw, whose great-grandfather was a jew who fled persecution in Germany in the last century, said it was wrong there was still no black or Asian civil servant heading a Whitehall department or army officer above the rank of colonel.

He said it was vital to do more to involve these communities in the mainstream of European life.

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