The Black vote: fact and fiction

It's a great shame that academics such as Kehinde Andrews fail to understand the Black vote and its effect on Black empowerment.

Those promoting Black political engagement have never advocated nor thought possible a 'block black vote' for any particular party. On the contrary, organisations such as OBV have always understood that the BME vote is diverse and getting even more diverse as the number of non-white British people increases. The research by British Future confirms this as it showed that in the 2015 General Election, 62% of the BME vote went to Labour, down from 80% in 2010, while Conservatives won 30% of the BME vote, twice the percentage of five years earlier.

These figures highlight why the political parties will need to pay increased attention to the different BME communities if they want to win the fiercely fought marginal seats with significant BME populations in future elections.

Professor Andrews used marginals such as Telford, Warwickshire North and Bolton West to argue that, in his words, "there simply is no significant ethnic minority vote that can be mobilised" which of course there can't be as few BME people live in these constituencies.

However an assessment of results in marginals including Croydon Central, Battersea, Hendon, Harrow, Nuneaton, Bedford, Reading, Rugby and Harlow show that the Conservatives could not have won them without the BME vote, and that due to BME support, Enfield North was one of very few seats Labour won from the Conservatives.

Why people undermine the importance of Black empowerment is best answered by themselves. In contrast, last week's Eastern Eye ran the headline, 'It's the Asians wot won it!' above a story showing the increased numbers of Asians who voted Tory. Despite this, nobody should start suggesting that there is an Asian block vote loyal to the Tories, as most Asians still voted Labour. The key fact is that on 7 May, fewer Asians and fewer Black people supported Labour, and this gave the Tories victory. So, like the rest of the population, how BME individuals voted reflected their beliefs, their values and their assessment of the competing policies and personalities in front of them when they entered the polling booth.

The 'Black Vote' is as complex and diverse as the BME communities and individuals that make up those communities. This is why the Prime Minister decided to spend time with BME faith groups during the campaign, including his address to an audience of 45,000 Black African Christians and attendance at a huge Sikh temple in Kent. He knew the importance of putting his message and personality in front of these minorities and equally he organised considerable media coverage of these visits.

While there clearly isn't a 'block Black vote' there is one issue that Black voters will demand to be addressed and that is to fight racial inequality and injustice in this country.

As more BME individuals better understand how democracy works so their empowerment will give them the increased power necessary to demand social and racial justice no matter which party wins their vote. David Cameron would be ill-advised not to understand that the democratic engagement of our ethnic minority population will only increase and he will be equally mistaken not to take their demands for racial equality seriously.

Simon Woolley and Paul Hensby