Black voters rejecting Conservatives

Earlier this week, the Rt Hon Francis Maude made a profound, honest and rather painful statement in a speech that was designed to be a wakeup call to Conservative party bosses. In a speech for the Policy Exchange think-tank that marked 10 years of modernizing the Conservative Party, he said 'ethnic minorities still don't see us - The Conservative Party - as their natural home'. He is right, of course. Just a few months ago, research by Runnymede Trust suggested that in regard to gaining a greater slice of the BME vote from the Labour party, the Conservatives have made little progress. Figures show that Conservatives only command 16 per cent of the BME vote, Liberal Democrats 14 per cent whilst Labour have the lion’s share at 70 per cent.

These figures are worrying for the party, not least in the run up to the London Mayoral elections in which as much as 30 per cent of the capital's electorate are from BME communities.

Maude has never been afraid of telling his party uncomfortable truths. He has spoken out when he thought his party's attitude to gays and lesbians were negative, and he rallied against his colleagues for portraying single mothers as a scourge of modern society.

In a powerful speech, Maude seems to question why is that despite the progress the party has made in regard to BME  representation, Black voters are still not warming to them?

These are bold and brave questions that deserve a thoughtful response. First the credit: Thanks to a number of progressives on the issue of representation, including Frances Maude, Theresa May, Dominic Grieve, Oliver Letwin and the Prime Minister David Cameron, the party made the biggest breakthrough in British political history when it selected and then got elected 12 BME MPs. The party almost single-handedly doubled the number of BME  MPs in Parliament. What's equally important to understand, this process didn't just happen overnight.

Conservative philosophy finds it difficult to accept quotas or 'All BME short list', but what bosses acutely understood was that in the selection process, the structures sometimes didn't allow BME talent to be recognised. So party bosses did a number of things. They put together an ‘A‘ list which for a short while imposed a long list of candidates including women and BME individuals who local parties had to choose from. Secondly, they proactively worked their core areas with candidates they wanted to promote. Therefore, by the time the selection process was under way the  BME  candidate had been well introduced, and immersed into the local party system to the extent their colour was no longer an issue, one way or the other.

You might say, 'wow, that's terrific, a large number of Conservative MPs who just happen to be Black'. Well, yes and no. Yes, this number of some very impressive BME MPs has transformed the way our parliament looks, but what is the point of having a record number BME MPs who rarely if ever talk about race inequality. It's like having a record number of women MP's who refuse to talk about gender inequality. It is the latter reason why the Conservatives have not made the impact with Black voters as they would have liked.

A number of other key factors that are worth considering when we look at Maude's proposition: First, the vast majority of BME MP's live in predominantly very white constituencies. So for example,  Surrey MP Kwasi Kwarteng often states when asked why he doesn't address BME issues, he replies  'as an elected representative, my duty is to my constituents, and they are almost all white'. I think even more telling than Kwarteng's comments come from a BME Conservative MP - who shall not be named - who told me, 'Simon, if you have a consciousness and want to be vocal about tackling race inequality, you will get it drummed out of you if you want to get on. At every juncture in the selection process, only those who confirm there no longer is an issue around race inequality will get through'.

As a result, most BME Conservative MPs don't talk about race inequality. At this point, we have to remind ourselves that some of the Labour MPs are not much better, but we are talking about the Conservatives here.

Francis Maude’s intervention is timely. In many ways he is giving a green light to the BME Conservative MP's to help the party engage better, and if that means some initial uncomfortable conversations then so be it.

For the Black MP’s from whatever political divide you are, the landscape demands that your racial identity is political. Yes, you're there to serve your constituency but you have a moral, if not political duty, to raise issues of racial inequality, particularly if, as you sit in the chamber, those issues are not being addressed. The same is true for women, people with disabilities and others.

For Conservatives, two things will happen; people such as Francis Maude will support you, secondly; many more Black voters will see the party as their natural home.

Simon Woolley