David Lammy Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Well-known backbencher and former Labour minister David Lammy talks about how a DNA test to establish his roots led him to rethink what it meant to belong to a tribe and the impact of being part of one.

Lammy was inspired by the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trace Act to take the test in 2007. It revealed he was 25% Tuareg tribe (Niger), 25% Temne tribe (Sierra Leone), 25% Bantu tribe (South Africa), with 5% traces of Celtic Scotland and a mishmash of other unidentified groups. Lammy says the need to be part of a tribe can be a positive thing and lead us to achieve great things we cannot do alone. However, he argues that globalisation and digitisation have led to new and pernicious forms of tribalism.

Lammy has served as MP for Tottenham since 2000 and is a former practising barrister. He was the first black Briton to study at Harvard Law School and served as a minister in the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown governments. He is also author of Out of the Ashes: Britain after the Riots. Here he talks to LBC radio host Matthew Stadlen, a former Telegraph interviewer and BBC presenter.