Labour is set to pledge support to aspiring civil servants of ethnic minority backgrounds later this week.

As part of its One Nation campaign the party is promising to fast-track black and minority ethnic (BME) candidates into the Civil Service if it gets into power.

“Labour would make sure kids from working-class backgrounds can help run the country by busting open Whitehall,” reads one of Labour's shadow minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Dugher will say to the Institute for Public Policy Research tomorrow.

Under the Con-Dem government the numbers of ethnic minority civil servants have fallen by almost 10 per cent.

Similarly the number of women working for the public services has dropped significantly.

Between 2010 and 2013 the number of women making up the Cabinet Office senior Civil Service staff fell by around 4 per cent.

Member of Parliament for Barnsley East Mr Dugher believes that “politics can often feel distant and remote from working people” and that Labour is set to addressing that issue.

The party’s proposed Fast Stream scheme would see the figures of BME applicants double from the current 18 per cent.

Additionally, at least 24 per cent of those running for positions in Whitehall would have to come from working-class families.

In an interview with the Guardian Labour MP David Lammy’s first boss Bibi Pillay said: “I never thought he'd be a politician.”

“It was unheard of for a young black boy from Tottenham to go into politics”, Ms Pillay added.