Distinguished friends
- Maria Adebowale-Schwarte
- Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia
- Rajesh Agrawal
- Riz Ahmed
- Sughra Ahmed
- Keith Ajegbo
- Claire Alexander
- Kitty Arie
- Julian Baggini
- Zelda Baveystock
- Haidee Bell
- Richard Beswick
- Dinesh Bhugra
- Karan Bilimoria
- Geoffrey Bindman
- Karen Blackett
- Nicholas Blake
- Ian Blatchford
- David Blunkett
- Hina Bokhari
- Mihir Bose
- Alain de Botton
- John Bowers
- Stephen Briganti
- Des Browne
- Mukti Jain Campion
- Paul Canoville
- Gus Casely-Hayford
- Michael Cashman
- Saimo Chahal
- Reeta Chakrabarti
- Shami Chakrabarti
- Stephen Claypole
- Robin Cohen
- Linda Colley
- David Crystal
- Angélica Dass
- Prakash Daswani
- Sandie Dawe
- Navnit Dholakia
- Sherry Dobbin
- Ibrahim Dogus
- Lloyd Dorfman
- Alf Dubs
- John Dyson
- Damien Egan
- Graeme Farrow
- Shreela Flather
- Daniel Franklin
- Edie Friedman
- Jitesh Gadhia
- Manjit Singh Gill
- Teresa Graham
- Ann Grant
- Susie Harries
- Naomie Harris
- James Hathaway
- David Hencke
- Sophie Herxheimer
- Afua Hirsch
- Michael Howard
- Clive Jacobs
- Kevin Jennings
- Adrian Johns
- Shobu Kapoor
- Malik Karim
- Jackie Kay
- Ayub Khan-Din
- Francesca Klug
- Tony Kushner
- Kwasi Kwarteng
- Kwame Kwei-Armah
- David Kynaston
- Brian Lambkin
- Mark Lewisohn
- Joanna Lumley
- Michael Mansfield
- Sue McAlpine
- Neil Mendoza
- Nick Merriman
- Abigail Morris
- Hugh Muir
- Tessa Murdoch
- Sandy Nairne
- Bushra Nasir
- Susheila Nasta
- Eithne Nightingale
- John O’Farrell
- Kenneth Olisa
- Kunle Olulode
- Julia Onslow-Cole
- John Orna-Ornstein
- Herman Ouseley
- Sameer Pabari
- Ruth Padel
- Panikos Panayi
- Bhikhu Parekh
- Nikesh Patel
- David Pearl
- Caryl Phillips
- Mike Phillips
- Trevor Phillips
- Sunand Prasad
- Kavita Puri
- Charles Rix
- Trevor Robinson
- Aubrey Rose
- Michael Rosen
- Cathy Ross
- Salman Rushdie
- Jill Rutter
- Philippe Sands
- Sathnam Sanghera
- Konrad Schiemann
- Richard Scott
- Stephen Sedley
- Maggie Semple
- Babita Sharma
- Nikesh Shukla
- Jon Snow
- Sonia Solicari
- Robert Soning
- David Spence
- Danny Sriskandarajah
- Stelio Stefanou
- Dick Taverne
- Jane Thompson
- Robert Tombs
- Rumi Verjee
- Patrick Vernon
- Edmund de Waal
- Iqbal Wahhab
- Yasmin Waljee
- David Warren
- Iain Watson
- Debbie Weekes-Bernard
- Henning Wehn
- Nat Wei
- Janet Whitaker
- Gary Younge
I grew up in Wolverhampton, where Enoch Powell was the local MP and the National Front had regular marches, creating a constant fear of being under siege in our neighbourhood. However, we all still moved on as multicultural Britain – a nation built on migration, home for political refugees and asylum seekers. The Migration Museum is essential if we want as a nation to write a narrative of this country for the 21st century.
Patrick Vernon
Patrick Vernon OBE is a committee member of Healthwatch England and associate member for the Department of History of Medicine at Warwick University. He was former chief executive of the Afiya Trust, one of the leading race equality health charities in the country. He has previously worked as a senior civil servant at the Department of Health and Local Government Association; director of the Brent Health Action Zone (Brent Primary Care Trust) and regional director for MIND; former member of the Ministerial Advisory Group for mental health and the Equality and Diversity Council. He is a trustee for Social Action for Health, North Muslim Housing Association and a patron of Santé, a Camden-based charity which aims to improve asylum seekers’ rights and health access, particularly mental health.
Patrick is also a film maker and cultural historian and founder of Every Generation Media. In 2003 he launched the 100 Great Black Britons campaign. He is also one of the leading experts on African and Caribbean family genealogy. In 2007 he became a Clore Fellow and travelled to Oman and East Africa, researching Swahili architecture and the legacy of colonisation and the slave trade. From 2006 to 2014, Patrick was a councillor in the London Borough of Hackney, where he served as the former chair of Health Scrutiny. On 22 June 2013, in partnership with the Windrush Foundation, London Baptist Church and British Futures, Patrick helped to launch a campaign called Windrush Day to celebrate migration and multicultural Britain.