Comment LONDON — In the race to become the next leader of the Conservative Party, and then the next British prime minister, there’s a Rishi, Suella and Kemi — running against a Tom, Penny and Liz — to replace a Boris. The Tory leadership contenders are the most ethnically diverse in British history — though not so ideologically. It is a matter of pride and bragging rights from centre-right Conservative leaders, who seem almost giddy that their field is more different than previous clashes within the opposition Labor Party, a centre-left movement that seeks to represent Britain’s minorities. This year’s Conservative field is also much more diverse than the last Tory leadership contest, won by Boris Johnson in 2019. Then, of the 10 candidates to start the race, nine were white. Now, half the candidates are minorities. Whether Britain is evolving into a ‘post-racial’ society or remains mired in institutional racism and colonial attitudes remains a matter of debate here, with evidence for all sides. What is clear is that this diverse field of candidates did not happen by accident, but by design. It is the result of nearly two decades of political recruitment and promotion efforts. The candidates to be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom British demographers have traditionally used a kind of clumsy term to describe non-whites in Britain – BAME, for “Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic”, a concept that has come under considerable criticism and may soon be phased out. The UK population is predominantly white (87 per cent), with the second and third largest racial groups being Asian (6 per cent) and Black (3 per cent), according to the Office for National Statistics. But four of the eight candidates shortlisted for the leadership contest are BAME: Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch and Nadhim Zahawi. When the first-round votes were counted Wednesday, Sunak was on top and Zahawi was knocked out — along with Jeremy Hunt, who ran and lost to Johnson in 2019. Two other prominent ethnic minority Tories — Home Secretary Priti Patel and former Health Secretary Sajid Javid — decided at the last minute not to run. Of those still in, all are purely Conservative – although they differ somewhat on tax cuts and social spending. All three minority candidates voted for Brexit in the 2016 referendum, despite a campaign fueled largely by anti-immigrant sentiment. All three suffer in identity politics. Making her pitch to Conservative activists and lawmakers, Braverman said: “Don’t vote for me because I’m a woman. Don’t vote for me because I’m brown. Vote for me because I love this country and I would do anything for it.” Braverman, who serves as Attorney General for England and Wales, was born in London to parents of Indian origin who immigrated to Britain in the 1960s from Kenya and Mauritius. Announcing her bid on ITV, Braverman said she wanted to cut taxes, cut public spending, stop migrants crossing the Channel illegally and also “get rid of all this rubbish they’ve woken up to”. Sunak also criticized the “clumsy, gender-neutral language”. At the launch for Badenoch, supporters saw unisex toilet signs replaced by ‘men’ and ‘ladies’ signs. How the UK’s next Prime Minister will be chosen This field of candidates can trace its political origins back to 2005 and the election of David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party, following a general election lost to Labour. At the time, the Conservatives had only two minority MPs in Parliament. In 2001, the Tories had none. “Cameron was the modernizing leader of the Conservatives, a party that was then considered traditional and secretive,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “He was young, still in his 30s. Essentially, he argued that the Tories needed to change their sales force.” In a speech in 2005, Cameron said he planned to “change the face of the Conservative Party by changing the faces of the Conservative Party”. Bale said Cameron understood that many first- and second-generation immigrants were good targets for the party’s messages: They ran small businesses and were family-oriented, but wary of government and resistant to high taxes. So Cameron pushed his party’s local unions to find and promote younger, more diverse candidates to contest seats in safe Conservative constituencies. Badenoch, 42, represents the Saffron Walden constituency, which has been considered a “safe seat” for the Tories since 1922. Bale described it as “old Tory and whiter than White”. Upon her election to Parliament in 2017, Badenoch praised the UK for giving her the chance to live the “British dream”. Badenoch was born in London to parents of Nigerian descent and spent most of her childhood in Lagos and the United States. Tanya Gold, a columnist for the Daily Telegraph, wrote that the ethnic diversity of the Conservative Party can be “confusing and irritating to some on the Left, who think these people must be Left because anything else is crazy”. Labor still dominates as a minority voter. In the last general election in December 2019, age was the dominant predictor of preference: older voters went Conservative and younger voters went Labour. Defining support based on race and ethnicity is harder to do in Britain, but based on polling data, research group Ipsos MORI estimated that in 2019, Labor far outperformed the Conservatives among ethnic minority groups , taking 64 per cent of all black and minority ethnic groups. voters, while 20% voted for the Conservatives and 12% for the Liberal Democrats. However, the Conservatives note that they – and not Labor – were the first party to see a woman, Margaret Thatcher, as prime minister and then promote another, Theresa May, to the top job. Among today’s six candidates for prime minister are four women — and so the Tories could put a third woman in 10 Downing Street by September. For his part, Johnson continued to push for diversity, appointing what he called “a cabinet for modern Britain”. The Economist noted, “Boris Johnson is such a living embodiment of white privilege that it’s easy to forget just how diverse his cabinet is.” Politics being politics, two of those different ministers – Sunak and Javid – began the government walkout last week that led to Johnson’s resignation announcement. Sunak, the former chancellor and finance minister, was born in Southampton, England, to parents of Indian descent who had emigrated from East Africa. He went to some of the most elite, most expensive schools in Britain, including Oxford. He is married to British-Indian fashion designer Akshata Murty, a billionaire daughter of the founder of Indian IT company Infosys. The couple were the subject of a recent mini-scandal which revealed Murthy had filed as a ‘non-resident’ UK resident, meaning she paid no UK tax on almost all of her staggering fortune. At the moment, Sunak is a leading candidate to replace his former boss.
