Chancellor Rishi Sunak is reportedly considering proposals from a campaign group for legal tender to be more inclusive.

According to a report in The Sunday Telegraph, Sunak has asked the Royal Mint to come up with new designs honouring notable BAME figures.

It is believed that British-Jamaican Crimean war military nurse Mary Seacole and Indian royal descendant, Noor Inayat Khan who was a spy in the Second World War and one of only four women to have received the George Cross, are being considered.

Former conservative parliamentary candidate Zehra Zaidi who is leading the ‘Banknotes of Colour’ campaign said a non-white person has never featured on British coins or notes. She added that people of all backgrounds helped build Britain.

However, BAME figures such as Walter Tull, the British Army’s first black officer, have been featured on commemorative coins in the past, which Zaidi said is not the same as legal tender.

She said: “Legal tender acts as a passport, an ambassador. We must tell the story of inclusive representation as it matters for cohesion and it matters in the narrative of who we are as a nation.”