Pav Akhtar

Community Liaison

As the head of diversity in a government department Pav Akhtar is one the youngest senior civil servants in Britain. He is also UK Black Pride’s Director with responsibility for Community Engagement since 2009.

Pav is also an elected Labour Party politician representing Stockwell ward in the London Borough of Lambeth where he is vice-chair of the Children and Young People’s Service.

Pav is a former graduate of the University of Cambridge where he was elected the first-ever Black president of the students’ union. He is also the former NUS Black Students’ Officer and former National Race Equality Officer for UNISON which is Britain’s largest public services trade union. Pav is currently the Campaigns Officer for the National Assembly Against Racism and an active member of UNITE the Union.

Pav has a long-standing commitment to the LGBT community serving as a gay rights advisor to Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London. He also serves as an elected BME community representative to the Board of Pride London, and is the elected Chairperson of Imaan, a support group for LGBT Muslims, their families and friends in Britain. Pav is active in his community’s faith forum and is a regular speaker at conferences on LGBT rights, human rights and employment rights.

Although Pav is not a natural festival person (he prefers the Archers on BBC Radio 4 to anything with a drumbeat, with a few exceptions) Pav is proud to have joined the Board of UK Black Pride which he has supported since its inception and says: “UK Black Pride is a real opportunity for our diverse communities to celebrate the greatness within the British LGBT community. It is a safe space for us to relax and share with others our own identities, as unique as they are, and as far away and removed from the stereotypes that are often projected upon us by the mainstream”.