Marsha de Cordova ‘feels invisible’ after BBC mistake her for another black MP

Marsha de Cordova has said it feels like all black female MPs are ‘seen as one person’ to the BBC after she was wrongly identified as Dawn Butler.

The Battersea MP was speaking from the Commons on Monday when the BBC confused her with Ms Butler, a candidate in the race to become Labour’s deputy leader.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk, Ms De Cordova said it is the ‘most insulting thing somebody can do’.

She said: ‘You can make a mistake but when you know it’s based on the colour of your skin, that is a problem.

‘It’s almost as though we are invisible. We are one person and that’s it. You are a black MP so I’m going to name you Dawn.’

She added: ‘All they saw is a black woman with braids so they just assumed it was Dawn Butler.

‘It goes back to the fact there is such little representation within their organisation.

‘One has to question how seriously they take diversity and inclusion.’

The Shadow Minister for Disabled People said the mix-up shows the need to have more diversity at the BBC.

She said: ‘The question to the BBC would be is why on earth is its most senior level not diverse or representative?

‘They can’t say people aren’t capable or competent enough. That’s not the case.’

It follows another diversity row at the BBC after News at 10 confused the late Kobe Bryant with LeBron James in their coverage of his death.

The BBC footage showed a loving photo of Kobe and his daughter Gianna at a basketball game, before cutting to a different game, focusing on Kobe’s fellow player, LeBron James.

As of 2019, the BBC’s BAME staff in leadership roles stands at 11.4%, which is still below its 15% target for 2020.

The public broadcaster ‘sincerely apologised’ for the recent mistake in a statement on social media.

‘Sometimes we incorrectly identify MPs at the moment when they stand to speak,’ BBC Parliament tweeted.

‘This error was immediately corrected on screen.’

But Ms De Cordova said she is still waiting for a personal apology from the BBC.

She said: ‘Another journalist made this mistake and they immediately jumped through every hoop to try and apologise, which is absolutely the right thing to do.’

The media coverage of the BBC’s mistake took a chaotic turn when the Evening Standard published a picture of a third black female Labour MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, mistakenly claiming it was Ms De Cordova.

Ms De Cordova said it was ‘almost laughable’, adding: ‘Given the nature of the story I would have ensured all my I’s were dotted and my t’s were crossed.

‘It just speaks to the wider problem in our society.

‘The barriers are still there and unless we start to address these structural problems on race and racism then we are going to continue to be having the same discussions, which is not very helpful.’

The Standard blamed the mistake on a wrongly captioned photo provided by Getty Images. The paper said: ‘It had been wrongly captioned by one of our picture suppliers, Getty Images.

‘We have apologised to both Marsha de Cordova and Bell Ribeiro-Addy this morning.’