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The participation of ethnicminorities in British politicsMuhammad AnwarPublished online: 04 Aug 2010.
To cite this article: Muhammad Anwar (2001) The participation of ethnicminorities in British politics, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 27:3,533-549, DOI: 10.1080/136918301200266220
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Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 27, No. 3: 533± 549 July 2001
The participation of ethnic minorities in British politics
Muhammad Anwar
Abstract How far have ethnic minorities participated in the British electoral processin the last two decades? In this paper their comparative registration and turn-out levelsas well as their voting patterns are examined. In addition, the responses of the politicalparties to the participation of ethnic minorities in politics and the representation ofethnic minorities at national and local levels of the British political system are presented.It is clear from the evidence that we have a long way to go to re¯ ect multi-ethnic Britainin the House of Commons and in other political institutions.
KEYWORDS: ETHNIC MINORITIES; POLITICAL PARTICIPATION; BRITAIN
Introduction
Ethnic minorities in Britain have a right to vote and stand for elections both asBritish citizens and as Commonwealth citizens. In this paper we examine howfar they have exercised this right and participated in the electoral process in thelast two decades.1 In particular we use empirical data from the 1997 GeneralElection and the 1998 local election studies to present the more recent picture.We also analyse the responses of the political parties to the participation ofethnic minorities in politics and look at the representation of ethnic minorities atthe various levels of the British political system. But ® rst we make some generalhistorically relevant points.
Due to the historical and colonial links of Asians and Afro-Caribbeans withBritain, they had a legal right to participate fully in the country’s politics evenbefore the post war mass migration. Therefore, such participation is not new.Three MPs from the Indian subcontinent were elected to the House of Commonsbefore World War II, all representing London constituencies. The ® rst, DadabhaiNaoroji, was elected in 1892 as a Liberal in Finsbury Central. The second, SirMancherjee Bhownagree, was twice elected as a Conservative for Bethnal GreenNorth East in 1895 and 1900. The third, Shapurji Saklatvala, was twice elected forBattersea North, as a Labour candidate in 1922 and as a Communist in 1924. Allthree were Parsees. In the House of Lords, there was one member from theIndian subcontinent, Lord Sinha of Raipur (1863± 1928). At a local level, in 1934Chunilal Katial, a medical doctor, was elected as a Labour councillor in Fins-bury, and in 1938 he became the ® rst ethnic minority origin mayor in Britain.Krishna Menon, a teacher, was also elected in 1934 as a Labour councillor for StPancras ward in London. In 1936, another doctor, Jainti Saggar, was elected asa Labour councillor in Dundee and served for 18 years. There are other examplesof ethnic minority candidates who were elected by a mainly white electorate.There is also evidence that several ethnic minority women participated in many
ISSN 1369-183X print/ISSN 1469-9451 online/01/030533-17 Ó 2001 Taylor & Francis Ltd
DOI: 10.1080/13691830120026622 0Carfax Publishing
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534 M. Anwar
suffragette organisations at the beginning of this century. For example, SophiaDuleep Singh, who lived in London, was a very active participant in the 1910s.
Due to the mass migration of ethnic minorities into Britain after World WarII, in many areas the electorate has become multi-racial, and it is in this contextthat we now examine the participation and representation of ethnic minorities inBritish politics. First we brie¯ y look at the location and importance of ethnicminorities in the areas of their concentration.
Location and importance of ethnic minorities
The 1991 Census showed that the ethnic minority population in Great Britainwas 3.1 million out of the total population of almost 55 million. Ethnic minoritieshave mainly settled in industrial and urban areas where jobs were available.This applies both to those who initially had freedom of movement and thosewho came through government and employers’ recruitment (Anwar 1979). Thismeans that the ethnic minority population is not distributed throughout thecountry in the same way as the white population. They are highly concentratedin the areas of their settlement. This in turn makes them statistically signi® cantin the political process.
Ethnic minorities are to be found in the South East region (56.4 per cent),especially in the Greater London area (44.8 per cent), in the Midlands (21 percent), in Yorkshire, the North and the North West (16.5 per cent), and theremainder in East Anglia, the South West, Wales and Scotland. The contrastbetween the concentration of ethnic minorities in London and the South East(56.4 per cent) compared with the white population (29.9 per cent of whom arelocated in this area) is particularly worth mentioning. As far as the size ofdifferent ethnic minority groups is concerned, the 1991 Census showed that anestimated 1.5 million of them were of South Asian origin, 880,000 were of BlackAfro-Caribbean origin and the remaining 640,000 were Chinese or belonged toother ethnic minority groups (OPCS 1993).
Within the regions mentioned above ethnic minorities are even further con-centrated in some parliamentary constituencies and local election wards. In 1991there were 78 parliamentary constituencies where more than 15 per cent of totalresidents were ethnic minority population. Out of these, 25 constituencies hadover 30 per cent ethnic minority population. It is estimated that there are nowmore than 125 parliamentary constituencies in England with an ethnic minoritypopulation of over 10 per cent. There are also several hundred local electionwards with more than 10 per cent of ethnic minority population. Out of the10,500 local election wards in Britain 1,309 have more than 5.5 per cent (thenational average) of their population from ethnic minorities. The 1991 Censusshowed that 100 local wards had over 43 per cent of ethnic minority population.The highest ethnic minority population of 90.21 per cent was recorded inNorthcote in the London Borough of Ealing. Therefore, the location, the concen-tration and the number of ethnic minorities in certain areas make them statisti-cally important in the political process. However, it must be stressed that it isnot only the number of ethnic minorities in certain areas which makes themelectorally important but also whether they actively take part in the processthrough registration on the electoral register, and, if they are on the register,whether they come out to vote and what their voting patterns are.
It is also worth mentioning here that the level of political awareness among
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Participation of ethnic minorities in British politics 535
ethnic minorities has increased over the past two decades. This is partly becausethe myth of return’ has now diminished and they have recognised that theirsense of security in Britain can be buttressed by political participation. Ethnicminority organisations and the ethnic minority press have played an importantrole in the creation of this political awareness.
Electoral participation
Registration
Several studies since 1974 have shown that non-registration among ethnicminorities in Britain is signi® cantly higher than among white people. Forexample, in 1974 a sample survey showed that ethnic minorities were far morelikely not to have registered to vote than were whites (Anwar and Kohler 1975).Only 6 per cent of whites were not registered compared with 24 per cent ofethnic minorities. Another survey in 1979 showed that 23 per cent of ethnicminorities were not registered compared with 7 per cent of whites (Anwar 1980).However, there were ethnic differences within the overall category of ethnicminorities. An OPCS survey in 1981 showed that in inner-city areas, especiallyin London, both the Afro-Caribbeans and Asian people had about double thenon-registration rate of white people ± 24 and 27 per cent as opposed to 12 percent (Todd and Butcher 1982). Another survey at the time of the 1983 GeneralElection showed that, while the level of registration had improved slightlyamong ethnic minorities compared with the 1979 and 1981 surveys, it haddeteriorated among whites. The 1983 survey showed that 22 per cent of ethnicminorities were not registered compared with 19 per cent of whites (Anwar1984). It also showed that 24 per cent of Afro-Caribbeans and 21 per cent ofAsians were not registered. Almost 10 years later a survey in 1991 also showedthat 24 per cent of Black people were not registered, which is the identical ® gureto the 1981 and 1983 survey results (Smith 1993). However, the 1991 surveyshowed that the registration levels of South Asians had improved signi® cantlyfrom 27 per cent not registered in 1981 to 15 per cent in 1991. This survey alsoshowed that, overall, 20.4 per cent of respondents in Inner London were notregistered. Since almost 26 per cent of ethnic minorities lived in Inner Londonit is not surprising that their non-registration levels were so high. As a resultthere has been a growing concern about the high levels of non-registrationamong ethnic minorities.
In 1996 Charter 88 and the 1990 Trust started a campaign, Operation BlackVote (OBV), to encourage and help ethnic minorities to register, thus increasingtheir involvement in the electoral process. In this context, the author wasapproached by the OBV to undertake further research on electoral registrationand other relevant issues (Anwar 1998a). This research in ® ve local authorityareas, undertaken in 1998, found that the non-registration among Black respon-dents was still very high (26 per cent), whilst the registration for Asians andwhites was fairly similar, as shown in Table 1.
As far as the reasons for non-registration are concerned, some respondentsmentioned the doubt about their residence status. Other reasons included thelanguage dif® culty and the fear of racial harassment and racial attacks fromextreme right-wing groups who could identify Chinese, South Asians and othersfrom their names on the electoral register. It appears that higher levels of
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Table 1. Registration: four ethnic groups 1998 (%)
Ethnic group registered Registered Not registered
White 82 18Black 74 26
Asian 81 19Other 54 46
Total non-white 73 27
Source: Anwar (1998a: 12).
non-registration among ethnic minorities, particularly young people, are alsobecause of the general alienation of some groups from the political system.
Sometimes the high levels of non-registration could be simply due to thepolicies of the registration of® ces which have not changed their methods to meetthe needs of their multi-racial electorates. As a result there are always areavariations in terms of registration levels. Overall, 9 out of 10 respondents in the1998 survey claimed that they were registered to vote (Anwar 1998a). Sagger(2000) also found in 1997 that over 90 per cent of whites as well as ethnicminorities claimed that they were registered to vote. However, as Table 1 makesclear, their perception did not match the reality when we compared theirresponses with the electoral register. Similarly, the ® gures for electoral regis-tration claimed by registration of® ces were higher than our ® ndings (Anwar1998a). In brief, it appears that the different registration levels in different areasare linked with the policies and practices of local registration of® ces and withthe interest taken by political parties and ethnic minority organisations inpersuading and helping people to register and thus participate in the electoralprocess. However, with the new rolling register system, introduced in February2001, people should be able to register throughout the year rather than once ayear under the old system. The implications of the new system for ethnicminorities need to be analysed in the future.
Turn-out
It is dif® cult to calculate turn-out for all ethnic groups by the fact that Afro-Caribbeans and other ethnic minority groups with Anglicised names are noteasily identi® able from the marked electoral register. One way to overcome thisdif® culty is to compare Asians with non-Asians either by observing voters asthey come out of polling stations at elections or by checking the marked registersafter a particular election. There is always a small margin of error in identifyingthe name and the ethnic group of some electors, as some Asians also haveAnglicised names. Another method of assessing turn-out rates is through asurvey when electors on the register could be asked to recall whether they votedat any particular elections and the results could then be compared with theturn-out recorded by polling clerks. The author has used both these methods toexamine patterns of turn-out of Asians versus non-Asians in several local andnational surveys undertaken over a period of 27 years. The general conclusionof these surveys is that the Asian turn-out on average is higher than that of
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Participation of ethnic minorities in British politics 537
Table 2. How likely to vote at 1998 local elections (%)
Absolutely Certain to Probably CertainlyEthnic group certain to vote vote will vote will not vote Not sure
White 28 27 16 12 16
Black 25 27 18 12 19Asian 31 32 15 4 18
Other 25 17 15 18 26
Total 28 28 16 11 18
Source: Anwar (1998a: 15).
non-Asians and also that there are differences between Indians, Pakistanis andBangladeshis (Anwar 1994).
In the 1998 survey referred to above (Anwar 1998a), we asked the respondentsabout their intention to vote at the 1998 local elections. This is an indirect wayof calculating prospective turn-out levels. It appears from our analysis that overhalf of the respondents were either `absolutely certain to vote’ or `were certainto vote’, as can be seen in Table 2. Among the various ethnic groups, Asians (64per cent) were more likely to turn out to vote compared with Blacks (52 per cent)and whites (55 per cent). This trend was con® rmed by research by the author atthe 1997 General Election. The turn-out survey in six parliamentary constituen-cies across the country con® rmed the previous results. This showed (Table 3)that the Asian turn-out was higher than non-Asians, with area variations.
We also wanted to know whether the respondents had ever voted and whatwere the ethnic differences. Once again we discovered that relatively moreAsians claimed to have voted compared with non-Asians. For example, 90.3 percent of Asians claimed to have ever voted compared with 87.4 per cent of whiteand 86.4 per cent of Black respondents. Those respondents who had never votedwere then asked Is this for political or practical reasons?’ Almost 60 per cent ofthem said that it was for practical reasons. On a system of proportionalrepresentation 55 per cent of the sample were more likely to vote if such a votingsystem were introduced. However, it is relevant to note that once again Asianrespondents were more likely to vote (63 per cent) compared with whites (51 percent) and Blacks (54 per cent) if there were a system of proportional representa-tion.
Table 3. Asian versus non-Asian turn-out: 1997 General Election (%)
Parliamentary constituency Asian turn-out Non-Asian turn-out
Bradford West 63.1 51.6Edgbaston 61.6 58.2
Ladywood 67.5 55.9Sparkbrook and Small Heath 60.2 52.2
Rochdale 64.4 42.4Walthamstow 60.0 63.0
Source: Anwar (1998a: 16).
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Voting patterns
The voting patterns of ethnic minorities compared with whites in the last twodecades are now examined brie¯ y. The aim is to show how the former arechanging over time, in particular due to the emergence of second-generationethnic minority electors. At the 1979 General Election 86 per cent of Asians, 90per cent of Afro-Caribbeans and 50 per cent of whites voted for the Labour Party(Anwar 1980). However, in some constituencies like Rochdale, up to 50 per centof Asians voted for the Liberal Party candidate, and in some other constituenciesup to 15 per cent of Asians voted for the Conservative Party. At the 1983 GeneralElection, a national exit poll showed that the majority of ethnic minorities hadvoted Labour (57 per cent), with 24 and 16 per cent voting Conservative andAlliance respectively (Anwar 1986). However, detailed analysis showed that thesolid support for Labour among Afro-Caribbean voters remained while Asianswere slowly moving towards other political parties as well. At the 1987 GeneralElection an exit poll con® rmed this pattern, showing that 61 per cent of Asianshad voted for Labour, compared with 20 per cent for the Conservatives and 17per cent for the Alliance. A National Opinion Poll survey before the 1992General Election also showed that 55 per cent of Asians intended to vote for theLabour Party, and while 18 per cent of respondents were still undecided, theothers were likely to vote for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats (Aminand Richardson 1992). The survey also showed that 58 per cent of Afro-Caribbeans intended to vote for the Labour Party at the 1992 General Election.This survey also revealed that those aged 18± 34 were more unlikely to votecompared with those over 34. For example, 16 per cent of South Asians, 18 percent of whites but 28 per cent of Afro-Caribbeans in the age group of 18± 34stated that they were fairly or very unlikely to vote. The overall conclusion fromthese surveys was that the majority of ethnic minorities still voted for the LabourParty but a signi® cant minority, particularly Asians, voted for the Conservativesand for the Liberal Democrats.
As part of the 1997 General Election study the author undertook a survey in® ve parliamentary constituencies on polling day to identify how ethnic minori-ties and whites from the same areas had voted (Anwar 1998a). Our researchersoutside selected polling stations asked voters to record on `duplicate’ ballotpapers the way they voted in the polling stations. The ballot papers were placedin a box by the voters and the process was totally voluntary and con® dential.The constituencies were Birmingham Edgbaston, Birmingham Ladywood, Birm-ingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath, Bradford West, and Walthamstow. It isworth pointing out here that except Edgbaston which had a Conservative PartyMP, all other constituencies were held by the Labour Party before the 1997General Election. The selection of constituencies could have some implicationsfor the results of our survey. However, our main interest here is to compare thepolitical behaviour of ethnic minorities and whites from the same geographicalareas.
It appears from our analysis that the majority of ethnic minorities voted forthe Labour Party candidates (60 per cent Asian, 92 per cent Black), but asigni® cant minority also voted for the Conservative Party candidates and a yetsmaller proportion for the Liberal Democrat candidates. However, there werearea variations and there were different trends for different ethnic groups. Forexample, in Bradford West, our survey suggested that the majority of Pakistanis
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Participation of ethnic minorities in British politics 539
Table 4. Voting patterns by ethnic group: 1997 General Election survey (%)
Ethnic group Labour Conservative Liberal Democrat Other
White 61 27 7 5Black Caribbean 94 2 4 0
Black African 96 1 3 0Black other 88 2 4 6
Indian 72 18 4 4Pakistani 55 39 1 4
Bangladeshi 83 13 1 3Other 67 24 3 4
Source: Anwar (1998a: 23).
(61 per cent) voted for the Conservative candidate (Mohammad Riaz) comparedwith 35 per cent for the Labour Party candidate (Marsha Singh). For the Indiansthe pattern was just the opposite: 74 per cent voted for the Labour Partycandidate and 23 per cent voted for the Conservative candidate.
Overall, out of the total sample of 3,232 voters (more than two-thirds of whomwere categorised as ethnic minorities), 65 per cent voted for the Labour Party, 27per cent for the Conservative Party, 4 per cent for Liberal Democrats, and 4 percent for other parties, at the 1997 General Election (Anwar 1998a). The votingpatterns of different ethnic groups are presented in Table 4.
It is worth pointing out here that another survey at the time of the 1997General Election showed similar voting patterns for ethnic minorities (Sagger2000). This study showed solid support for the Labour Party amongst Afro-Caribbeans (93.5 per cent). It also showed similar support for the ConservativeParty among Indians (17.5 per cent) to that recorded by our survey but lesssupport for the Conservative Party among Pakistanis (7.1 per cent) and moresupport among Bangladeshis for the Liberal Democrats (10.3 per cent). Thesedifferences can easily be explained because our survey was in ® ve parliamentaryconstituencies, with a larger sample, while the Sagger survey was part of a widerstudy of the 1997 General Election, and had a smaller sample of ethnic minori-ties. For example, there were only 85 Pakistanis and 39 Bangladeshis in theSagger sample while in our survey there were 704 Pakistanis in the sample justin one constituency, Bradford West. However, the voting patterns of ethnicminorities over time show that a vast majority of ethnic minorities still vote forthe Labour Party but a signi® cant minority, particularly Asians, vote for theConservative Party or for the Liberal Democrats, and this trend is likely tocontinue in the near future, with local variations. One reason for this is that theLabour Party is still perceived as more sympathetic to ethnic minorities andsupports the working class’. This pattern of voting is also found in the UnitedStates, where the Democratic Party has always received the majority of blackvotes due to a similar perception. Nevertheless, it appears from researchevidence that in Britain the policies of the political parties, the organisation andmobilisation of ethnic minorities at local and national levels, the candidates’personal contact and familiarity with ethnic minorities and the presence ofethnic minority candidates are important factors in attracting electoral supportfrom ethnic minorities. In this context it is relevant here to analyse the views ofwhites and ethnic minorities towards the political participation of the latter.
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540 M. Anwar
Table 5. Should ethnic minoritiesbe encouraged to participate in the
political process? (%)
Ethnic group Yes No
White 97 3Black 96 4
Asian 98 2Other 96 4
Source: Anwar (1998a: 28).
Views about ethnic minorities’ participation in politics
In our 1998 survey referred to above (Anwar 1998a) we asked respondentswhether ethnic minorities should be encouraged to participate in the politicalprocess. An overwhelming majority of both white and ethnic minority respon-dents felt that ethnic minorities ought to be encouraged to participate in thepolitical process, as can be seen in Table 5.
These ® ndings were consistent with the author’s previous research in 1979,1983 and 1990 (Anwar 1994). These surveys also included the views of candi-dates in parliamentary and local elections about the participation of ethnicminorities in politics. For example, local election candidates in 1990 were asked`Do you think people from ethnic minority groups should be encouraged to takea more active role in British politics?’ Some 97 per cent of all respondents said`yes’ to this question and there were very few party differences.
In the 1998 survey of electors, we asked the respondents what form this moreactive participation should take: (1) getting involved in the present politicalparties, (2) having their own political party, and (3) any other method. Ourresults show an overwhelming support for the ® rst method, namely to encour-age the participation of ethnic minorities in the present political parties (92 percent whites, 86 per cent Blacks, and 94 per cent Asians supported this method).We also asked about the reasons for encouraging ethnic minorities to take anactive role in British politics. The majority of respondents in all ethnic groups feltthat it was good for integration and for providing equal opportunity for ethnicminorities. Relatively more Asians (22 per cent) than Blacks (16 per cent) felt thatthey should be encouraged because they are British citizens. See Table 6 forfurther details.
If respondents wanted ethnic minorities to get involved in politics for thereasons mentioned in Table 6 and also for them to get involved in the existing
Table 6. Reasons for encouraging ethnic minorities to participate in political process (%)
Good for Equal British Need more To have Get
Ethnic group integration opportunity citizen representatives say involved
White 48 20 7 12 8 6Black 30 25 16 16 2 12
Asian 19 35 22 7 1 15Other 51 20 ± 16 8 5
Source: Anwar (1998a: 29).
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Participation of ethnic minorities in British politics 541
political parties (Table 5), what about their representation? We explored thisissue by asking, `Do you think there should be more elected representatives fromethnic minorities?’ Almost 98 per cent of ethnic minority respondents but also 91per cent of whites agreed that there should be more elected representatives fromethnic minorities both at national and local levels. However, the reasons forwanting more elected ethnic minority representatives are interesting. For exam-ple, a signi® cantly greater percentage of Asian (22 per cent) and Black (25 percent) respondents felt that it was good for policy-making, compared with only7 per cent whites who expressed this as a reason. However, 30 per cent of theoverall sample said that there should be more ethnic minority representation tore¯ ect multi-ethnic Britain.
Political parties’ special initiatives
The participation of ethnic minorities in the political process is also affected bythe policies and initiatives taken by the political parties. These include specialarrangements to attract ethnic minority support, their manifesto commitments atelections and the number of ethnic minority candidates and elected MPs andcouncillors.
The Labour Party Race and Action Group (LPRAG) was set up in 1975 as apressure group to educate and advise the party on relevant issues. Then therewas a long campaign to set up Black Sections in the Labour Party (Jeffers 1991).This issue was debated and defeated at several Labour Party annual conferencesin the 1980s. Finally, as a result of various discussions, the Labour PartyNational Executive Council set up a Black and Asian Advisory Committee,followed by a Black Socialist Society, similar to the Party’s women and localgovernment committees. The main objective of the society is to get and maintainethnic minority support for the party. An of® cer is also appointed at the LabourParty national headquarters to deal with ethnic minorities.
The Conservative Party took the initiative in 1976 and set up an EthnicMinority Unit in the Conservative Central Of® ce’s Department of CommunityAffairs. Its objective was to make party members aware of the growing import-ance of ethnic electors, to in¯ uence party policy, to improve the image of theparty among ethnic minorities, and as a result to seek their support. The Unithelped to form an Anglo-Asian Conservative Society through which it recruitedAsians directly into the party. It had about 30 local branches. This developmentwas followed by the formation of the Anglo-West Indian Conservative Societywith the same objective. However, more recently, these societies have beenreplaced by a national organisation, the One Nation Forum, with similarobjectives. But some Anglo-Asian and Anglo-West Indian Societies still continuetheir activities at local level. The members of these societies and the One NationForum get involved in election campaigns as Conservative Party workers, andsome are coming forward as party candidates in local, parliamentary andEuropean elections. It is often mentioned by Conservative Party leaders that theAsian values are closer to the philosophy of the Party. For example, in aFebruary 1997 speech Michael Howard, the then Home Secretary, voiced hisappreciation of the role of Asians in the prosperity of Britain and reiterated thatAsian values were closer to the philosophy of his party. Asians were thereforenatural Conservative Party supporters, he said. The new Conservative Partyleader has made similar statements in Asian and other ethnic minority group
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542 M. Anwar
meetings. William Hague, speaking as chief guest at a dinner for Asian million-aires at the Cafe Royale, expressed the hope that one day an Asian would beConservative Party leader and added though you’ll forgive me for saying notquite yet. As far as I am concerned, I see Asians as no less British than the Scots,the English, the Welsh and the Northern Irish’ (Daily Telegraph, 22 April 1999).He also announced the setting up of a `Cultural Unit’ at the ConservativeCentral Of® ce to attract more Asians. Mr Hague said that he wanted moreBritish Blacks and Asians playing a full part in the mainstream of our nationallife. Not just in business, the professions, sports, the arts or in the media but alsoin politics’ . All these statements and special arrangements show that the Con-servative Party is trying to attract ethnic minority support, particularly fromAsians.
The Liberal Party used to have a Community Relations Panel in the 1970s,which included ethnic minority members. It met regularly to discuss relevantissues and formulated not only policies to attract ethnic minority members, butalso campaigning strategies at elections. It appears that now the LiberalDemocrats are following a similar arrangement. In June 1991, a special organis-ation with the name `Asian Liberal Democrats’ was formed to attract supportfrom Asians for the Party. The Liberal Democrats National Executive also hasethnic minority representation. The leader of the Liberal Democrats has also heldmeetings with ethnic minority businessmen to attract ® nancial, as well aselectoral support, for the Party. Recently, a new forum called Ethnic MinorityLiberal Democrats has been meeting to formulate relevant policies for the party.
More recently the SNP is also trying in various ways to get Asians to supportthe Party. An organisation called `Asians for Scottish Independence’ has beenformed. Asian candidates were put forward by the SNP at the 1997 GeneralElection and some Asians have also contested the Scottish Parliament elections.
Overall, it appears that all the main political parties are competing for theethnic minorities’ votes. The leaders of the political parties have openly soughtethnic minorities’ support without the fear of losing white voters, as was thecase in the 1960s and 1970s. This pattern of activities is likely to continue in thefuture. However, we also need to examine how far political parties have helpedto provide elected representation. One way to examine this is to look at thenumber of ethnic minority origin candidates put forward by political parties atthe last few general elections and their representation at national and locallevels. However, ® rst, we very brie¯ y examine how politicians have used race’as an issue in elections.
In every general election since the early 1960s, the race card’ was played byseveral politicians to undermine the presence of ethnic minorities as Britishcitizens. However, the 1997 General Election was an exception; most politiciansrefused to pander to some voters’ hostility towards ethnic minorities in order towin of® ce, and many used the election campaign to emphasise the value theyplaced on ethnic diversity. The Commission for Racial Equality’s Compact on FreeSpeech and Race Relations in a Democratic Society (1997), which was endorsed byall the main political parties, also helped in this context. In the CRE’s ElectionCompact, a promise was made that candidates would not be allowed to `play therace card’. As a result of this it was generally assumed that race would notbecome an election issue in the 1997 General Election. However, some MPs inthe last Parliament, for example Nicholas Budgen (Conservative, Wolverhamp-ton South-West), tried to make immigration an election issue. This created some
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Participation of ethnic minorities in British politics 543
reaction in the media and in the West Midlands, in particular. Some leaders ofthe Christian communities of the West Midlands wrote to The Times (4 April1997) after Mr Budgen had published articles in the press entitled `we ignoreimmigration at our peril’ (The Times, 18 March 1997). They argued that:
issues of race are real in the daily experience of many of those for whom we have spiritualresponsibility or social concern. The rising number of reported and unreported racial
attacks and the very wide gap in the unemployment rate between black and whitecommunities are two of many instances of a considerable problem.
Once again leaders of the three main political parties as well as the leaders ofPlaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party have signed an agreement drawnup by the CRE in which they have promised not to play the race card’ in thenext general election. They have also promised that they will discipline anyonewho campaigns for or represents their party during the election campaign whoacts in a way likely to stir up prejudice (The News International, 15 March 2001).
The publication of the Macpherson Inquiry Report about the murder ofStephen Lawrence in February 1999 (Macpherson 1999) provided the oppor-tunity for the Prime Minister and other political leaders to show their commit-ment to a multi-racial Britain. At an international conference of Sikhs inBirmingham in May 1999, the Prime Minister said `when one section of ourcommunity is under attack, we defend them in the name of all the com-munity ¼ when bombs attack the Black and Asian community in Britain, theyattack the whole of Britain’. He pleaded for unity against racists whom heaccused of trying to destroy Britain. The race card issue and its implications forrace relations and the responsibilities of political leaders in this context arediscussed in greater detail in the recent report of the Commission on the Futureof Multi-Ethnic Britain (2000: 225± 30).
Overall it appears that the government and the main opposition parties arenow united against extreme-right groups. This is quite different from the 1970sand 1980s. For example, Mrs Thatcher during her eleven and a half years asPrime Minister never made a major speech on race relations in Britain, althoughthe 1980s inner-city disturbances took place during her period of of® ce and theScarman Report about disturbances in Brixton was published in 1981 (Scarman1981).
Ethnic minority candidates and representation
Several ethnic minority origin candidates unsuccessfully contested parliamen-tary elections for the main political parties between 1974 and 1983. For example,at the 1983 General Election, 18 ethnic minority candidates campaigned for themain political parties. Except for one seat with redrawn boundaries (HemelHempstead), which was a winnable Labour seat, no ethnic minority candidatecontested a safe or winnable seat. At the 1987 General Election, out of the 27ethnic minority candidates for the main political parties, four Labour candidateswere elected. One other Labour ethnic minority candidate in Nottingham Eastlost the seat only by 456 votes. This was partly due to the internal Labour Partydifferences in the constituency about the selection of the Labour candidate. Theoverall performance of ethnic minority candidates in 1987 was like that of otherparty candidates in the same regions. This election provided convincing evi-dence for the political parties that ethnic minority candidates were not vote
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Table 7. Ethnic minority candidates representing main political parties,1997 General Election
Total number of ethnicParty minority candidates Asian Black Other
Labour 13 8 5 ±
Conservative 9 8 1 ±Liberal Democrat 18 10 5 3
Total 40 26 11 3
Source: Anwar (1998a: 31).
losers any longer; indeed in some areas they were improving the party positionby attracting more ethnic minority voters, in particular.
There were 23 ethnic minority origin candidates who contested for the mainpolitical parties at the 1992 General Election. They comprised nine Labour, eightConservatives and six Liberal Democrats. Six of them were elected, ® ve Labourand one for the Conservative Party. It is worth mentioning that Nirj Deva(Brentford and Isleworth) became the ® rst ethnic minority origin person inrecent times to represent the Conservative Party in the House of Commons in1992. The ® ve who represented Labour included four who were ® rst elected atthe 1987 election: Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng, Bernie Grant and Keith Vaz. Theywere joined by Piara Khabra. However, in a parliamentary by-election inNovember 1991, in an area with very few ethnic minorities, Dr Ashok Kumargained Langbaurgh seat for Labour from the Conservative Party with a swing of3.6 per cent. But at the 1992 General Election Dr Kumar lost his seat to theConservative Party candidate by a small margin. The other upset for an ethnicminority candidate was in Cheltenham, where John Taylor lost the safe Con-servative seat by a Conservative swing to Liberal Democrats of 5.2 per cent. JohnTaylor’s controversial selection received a very wide media coverage andprompted John Major, the then Prime Minister, to say that there was no place forracist sentiments in the Conservative Party (Anwar 1994). In the last few yearsthere have also been several examples where ethnic minorities, particularlyAsians, felt that they had been banned from becoming members of the LabourParty or problems had been created for Asians and other ethnic minoritiesstanding as candidates. Some complaints had also been made to the Commissionfor Racial Equality alleging racial discrimination (Anwar 1998b). Solomos andBack (1995) have also described some of these issues about ethnic minoritycandidates’ selection and hostile attitudes towards Asian politicians amongwhite Labour Party members and of® cials in Birmingham in the 1980s and early1990s.
At the 1997 General Election the number of ethnic minority origin candidateswho contested for the three main political parties was 40, almost double that ofthe 1992 General Election. Table 7 shows the ethnic origin and the partyaf® liation of the ethnic minority candidates. There were also several other ethnicminority origin candidates who contested for minor and nationalist parties,and/or as independent candidates.
Altogether nine ethnic minority origin candidates were elected. They allbelong to the Labour Party. Five of them are of Asian origin and four are
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Participation of ethnic minorities in British politics 545
Table 8. Performance of ethnic minority origin MPs in the last parliament at the 1997General Election
Majority in Majority inName Constituency Party 1992 1997
Diane Abbot Hackney North and Lab 10,722 15,627
Stoke NewingtonPaul Boateng Brent South Lab 9,917 19,691
Nirj Deva Brentford and Isleworth Con 1,675 Lost (Labmajority 14,424)
Bernie Grant Tottenham Lab 11,968 20,200Piara Khabra Ealing Southall Lab 5,031 21,423
Keith Vaz Leicester East Lab 11,316 18,422
Source: Anwar (1998a: 32).
categorised as Black. Compared with the 1992 General Election the number ofMPs of Asian origin has increased from three to ® ve and Black origin MPs fromthree to four. However, in 2000 another Black MP was elected in a by-electionin Preston. Therefore, now there are 10 MPs of ethnic minority origin.
However, it is worth pointing out that three out of the four newly electedethnic minority origin MPs at the 1997 General Election had suffered swingsagainst the Labour Party in their areas compared with the national, regional oreven local trends. These swings were as follows:
1 Bethnal Green and Bow (O. King ± Lab) Swing Labour to Conservative 5.9.2 Bradford West (M. Singh ± Lab) Swing Labour to Conservative 5.4.3 Glasgow Govan (M. Sarwar ± Lab) Swing Labour to SNP 2.4.
One explanation for the swings against the Labour Party in these constituenciescompared with the 10.5 swing to Labour nationally is the way selection ofLabour Party candidates took place in these constituencies, which was contro-versial. There were local factors involved in each case. However, in the end allthree candidates received divided Labour Party workers’ support in the areas.
On the other hand, except the defeated Conservative Party Asian origin MP inthe last Parliament all other ethnic minority origin MPs improved their share ofthe vote very signi® cantly in 1997 compared with the 1992 General Election, asshown in Table 8. Dr A. Kumar’s (Lab) performance in Middlesborough Southand Cleveland at the 1997 General Election, where he turned a 1,401 Conserva-tive Party majority at the 1992 General Election into a Labour Party majority of10,607 (swing 11.14) and the evidence in Table 8 show that ethnic minoritycandidates are now accepted as `party candidates’ and if they are given safe’and `winnable’ seats they can win those with full party support, even in areaswith very few ethnic minorities.
In fact, apart from Mr Deva’s (Con) seat which was considered as a marginal,no other ethnic minority origin candidate who contested for the ConservativeParty and for the Liberal Democrats was given a safe’ or `winnable’ seat.Therefore, it was not possible for any of them to win at the 1997 GeneralElection.
It is worth mentioning that all the minor parties or independent ethnicminority origin candidates showed poor performance and this proves that such
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Table 9. Ethnic minority members of London boroughs
Election year Total councillors Ethnic minority councillors % total councillors
1982 1914 79 4.11986 1914 142 7.4
1990 1914 179 9.41994 1917 202 10.5
1998 1917 217 11.3
candidates, when they stand outside the main political parties, do not have achance of winning.
For the next general election at the time of writing (scheduled for June 2001),the three main political parties have selected 52 candidates of ethnic minorityorigin. These include 11 Conservatives, 18 Labour (including 10 sitting MPs) and23 Liberal Democrats. It appears, based on previous trends, that the 10 sittingMPs and three new candidates (two for Labour and one for the Conservatives)have a chance of winning.
In the House of Lords the number of ethnic minority life peers has tripled inthe last four years from 6 to 18. Fourteen of them are categorised as Asians andfour as Black. They represent all three parties between them but the majority ofthem represent the Labour Party. However, the total number of ethnic minorityorigin peers does not yet re¯ ect the multi-ethnic nature of our society. It is worthmentioning that currently four ethnic minority origin MEPs are representing theUK in the European Parliament (two each for the Labour Party and theConservative Party). However, it is relevant to point out that there is norepresentation of ethnic minorities in the Scottish Parliament or the WelshAssembly.
It is clear from the evidence that, compared with Parliamentary representa-tion, slow progress has been made at local level, particularly in areas of ethnicminority concentrations. To analyse very brie¯ y what progress has been madewe compare the result of the last few local elections, particularly in London andBirmingham.
In 1982 the number of ethnic minority councillors in London boroughs was 79and in 1986 it increased to 142. Most of the 142 ethnic minority councillorsbelonged to the Labour Party (132). Only 26 of the ethnic minority councillorswere women. In 1990, the number of ethnic minority councillors in Londonincreased to 179 out of the total of 1,914 councillors. This meant that the ethnicminority councillors constituted 9.4 per cent of the London borough councillors,less than half the proportionate share of the ethnic minority population inLondon, 21 per cent. The representation of ethnic minorities in London im-proved further in 1994 when the number of ethnic minority origin councillorsreached 202 out of 1,917. In 1998 it was estimated to be 217. This means that itis still just over 11 per cent of the total councillors compared with an estimatedethnic minority population of now almost 25 per cent. Table 9 shows theprogress between 1982 and 1998.
In Birmingham the pattern of ethnic minority representation particularly since1990 has been a little better compared with London. As Table 10 shows, therewere 22 ethnic minority origin councillors out of a total of 117 in 2000. Thismeans that the ethnic minority councillors constituted 18.8 per cent of the
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Participation of ethnic minorities in British politics 547
Table 10. Ethnic minority members of Birmingham City Council
Election year Ethnic minority councillors % total councillors
1982 5 4.21986 14 12.0
1990 17 14.51994 21 18.0
1998 20 17.02000 22 18.8
Birmingham councillors compared with an estimated ethnic minority populationof 27 per cent. Sixteen of the 22 ethnic minority councillors in Birminghambelonged to the Labour Party. Five Asians were elected as independents inBirmingham and now have formed the Justice Party. The situation in other areasin terms of ethnic minority representation was even worse.
In 1992 a survey of metropolitan districts found that out of the 2,079 council-lors only 33 were identi® ed as ethnic minorities, which was 1.6 per cent of thetotal councillors (Geddes 1993). The survey of district councils showed therepresentation of ethnic minorities to be even lower: 104 out of 12,368 (0.5 percent). The pattern in English county councils was similar. Before the 1993County Council election it was revealed that there were only 26 Asian andAfro-Caribbean councillors out of 2,849 (0.9 per cent). Altogether in 1993 thenumber of ethnic minority councillors was just over 360. In 2000 this number isestimated to be 530 out of a total number of almost 23,000 local councillors inEngland and Wales. This means that the ethnic minority origin councillorsconstituted just over 2 per cent compared with an estimated ethnic minoritypopulation of 7 per cent in 2001.
Conclusions
There is no doubt that the spatial concentration of ethnic minorities in someareas of Britain has greatly enhanced their statistical importance in the politicalprocess. Over time their participation in general and local elections has in-creased. This is an encouraging indication of the extent to which they arebecoming integrated into the mainstream of political life in Britain. However,our research has shown that they still face disadvantage, notably in terms ofelectoral registration and representation. For example, in 1998 26 per cent ofBlack, 19 per cent of Asian and 46 per cent of other ethnic minorities, as well as18 per cent of whites, were not registered to vote. Minorities were, therefore,excluded to some extent from the electoral process. Although the number ofethnic minority origin MPs has increased from six in 1992 to ten in 2001, thisdoes not re¯ ect the ethnic minority population in Britain. There would need tobe 42 MPs of ethnic minority origin to do that.
Second, it is relevant to conclude that the overall electoral performance ofethnic minority candidates has been in line with the general regional trends.However, all ethnic minority origin Labour Party MPs in the last Parliamentimproved their share of the vote signi® cantly. Also ethnic minority candidatesare now accepted as `party candidates’. If they are given safe’ or `winnable’seats they can win these with full party support, even in areas with very few
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548 M. Anwar
ethnic minorities. At local council level the representation of ethnic minority hasmade slow progress and it still does not re¯ ect the nature of multi-ethnic Britain.The same applies to the House of Lords. The Royal Commission on the Reformof the House of Lords (2000) has recently recommended that efforts should bemade to ensure that ethnic minority representation should be at least propor-tionate to their presence in the population as a whole.
In terms of the political involvement of ethnic minorities in politics, anoverwhelming majority of ethnic minorities and whites (both 97 per cent) feltthat ethnic minorities should be encouraged to participate in the British politicalprocess. Like previous elections, Asian turn-out was higher than non-Asians atthe 1997 General Election. This trend was also con® rmed by the voting inten-tions for the 1998 local elections. The voting patterns of ethnic minorities showthat a signi® cant majority still vote for the Labour Party. However, where effortshave been made by the Conservative Party and by the Liberal Democrats theircandidates have received an important share of the vote. For example, the 1997survey in ® ve parliamentary constituencies revealed that due to local factors, asigni® cant minority of ethnic minorities, particularly Asians (40 per cent), hadalso voted for other political parties. There were area variations and in somecases a majority of certain Asian groups had voted for the Conservative Party ±for instance Pakistanis in Bradford West (61 per cent) and Birmingham Edgbas-ton (60 per cent).
Race and immigration did not become national issues at the 1997 GeneralElection. However, these were made issues in some areas, in particular thosewhere the British National Party (BNP) and the National Front (NF) candidatescontested. However, all major political party leaders seem to be committed todiversity and were against pandering to hostility towards ethnic minorities inorder to win of® ce. This is a good sign and should help further the politicalintegration of ethnic minorities in Britain. Equality of opportunity in the politicalprocess is crucial to achieve equality in other ® elds, and this means theireffective representation and involvement.
It is clear from the evidence presented above that all the major political partiesin Britain are failing to fully integrate ethnic minorities into the political process.Therefore, more needs to be done to encourage and help ethnic minorities toparticipate in the political system effectively. The political parties have a re-sponsibility to increase the number of ethnic minorities in the decision-makingprocess. This will help to achieve equality of opportunity not only in the politicalparties but also outside them. The next general election will be a good time forthe political parties to show their commitment to providing equality of oppor-tunity for ethnic minorities.
Note
1 An earlier version of this paper was originally prepared, in my capacity as member of the
Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, as a background discussion paper. A revisedversion of that paper is published here since very little of the information in the discussion paper
appears in the Commission’s report (see Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000).Some discussion on the Commission’s report appeared in JEMS, 26(4): 719± 38.
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Participation of ethnic minorities in British politics 549
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Author details
Muhammad Anwar is Research Professor in the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, Universityof Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
Tel: 1 44 (0)24 76 524870Fax: 1 44 (0)24 76 524324
E-mail: [email protected]
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