Andy Burnham’s first cabinet includes four ministers from visible ethnic minority backgrounds: home secretary Shabana Mahmood, energy security secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, AI minister Kanishka Narayan, and Lisa Nandy as culture secretary. A decade ago, this team alone would probably have generated headlines. Now, it has barely registered.This silence on the makeup of the cabinet tells us something important about ethnic diversity in British politics. We have entered what might be called the “post-first” era of minority representation. For the past 40 years, the politics of representation revolved around one question: could ethnic minorities reach the highest levels of political office? The election of Diane Abbott, Bernie Grant, Paul Boateng and Keith Vaz in 1987 transformed British politics because it challenged assumptions about who belonged in parliament. Later came a succession of symbolic milestones: Britain’s first Muslim MP (Mohammad Sarwar), first Black cabinet minister (Paul Boateng), first British Asian home secretary (Sajid Javid) and first British Asian and Hindu prime minister (Rishi Sunak).Political scientists call this “descriptive representation” – the idea that elected institutions should broadly reflect the populations they govern. These “firsts” mattered because they widened ideas of belonging. And they demonstrated that public office was open to people who had previously been excluded.Beyond ethnicityAs more ethnic minority politicians entered parliament – and government – diversity became increasingly normalised. Cabinet appointments were no longer remarkable simply because of a minister’s ethnicity. Minority politicians became part of the establishment, occupying senior positions and taking on some of the most contentious policy areas.One of the defining features of this period was that minority politicians increasingly fronted politically difficult agendas. Javid, Priti Patel and Suella Braverman became the face of tough immigration and asylum policies under Conservative governments. Under Labour, Mahmood also became associated with the government’s tougher approach to immigration, publicly defending aspects of the policy and becoming one of its most prominent advocates. This included overseeing a more restrictive approach to the rules governing entry to the UK.Minority politicians were no longer valued solely for the symbolic message their appointments conveyed. They were increasingly entrusted with, and publicly identified with, some of the trickiest areas of government.Today, Britain appears to have entered a new stage. The defining feature of the “post-first” era is that ethnicity has ceased to be a predictor of ideology. For many years, debates about representation often assumed that greater ethnic diversity would lead to more progressive politics. Yet today’s political landscape tells a very different story. Minority politicians can be found across the ideological spectrum. Your Party MP Zarah Sultana represents an insurgent left politics. Mahmood sits firmly within Labour’s more socially conservative and fiscally cautious tradition. Kemi Badenoch is leading the right-of-centre Conservative Party. And Zia Yusuf has become one of the most prominent figures within the right-wing populist Reform UK.Ethnicity tells us remarkably little about where politicians stand on immigration, taxation, foreign policy or the role of the state. They disagree with one another as profoundly as their white colleagues do.This reflects a broader transformation in British democracy. Minority politicians are increasingly judged as politicians first. Their careers rise or fall because of competence, ideology and electoral appeal, rather than the communities they come from.The 2024 general election demonstrated this particularly clearly. In several constituencies with large Muslim electorates, Muslim Labour candidates lost support despite sharing the ethnic and religious backgrounds of many of their constituents. Instead, many voters backed independent candidates whose position on Gaza more closely aligned with their own. The election illustrated that descriptive representation alone was no longer sufficient. Substantive representation had become the decisive consideration for many voters.The question is not whether a Conservative or Reform government would reverse gains made for minority representation. That seems unlikely. Ethnic minority politicians now occupy senior positions across every major political party. The era in which ethnic minority representation was itself the story has largely passed. The more important issue now is the politics those representatives pursue.A more significant challenge is what minority representation will mean in the future. A diverse cabinet can still pursue policies that many minority communities oppose. Inclusion at the top no longer guarantees substantive representation below.That is the defining political challenge of Britain’s “post-first” era. The politics of representation have moved beyond celebrating symbolic milestones. The politics of the “first” have given way to the politics of governing. The central question is no longer who gets into the room, but what they do once they are there.Parveen Akhtar has previously received funding from the ESRC, the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust. Tahir Abbas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.