Explained: diversity & the Tory Party

Now that we’re in the twilight of the Conservative Party’s leadership race, it’s a good moment to look back a second. Were you pleasantly surprised by how diverse the candidates were?

This is not to say that the list of potential Prime Ministers was any good. If anything, looking at the candidates’ views, it showed how far right the Tories have shifted post-Brexit.

That said, considering this move to the right, and the fact the Conservative Party equates WOKE-ism with communism, it was a pleasant surprise to see the initial lineup:

• Rishi Sunak: male with Indian heritage, Hindu
• Suella Braverman: female with Kenyan and Mauritius heritage, Buddhist
• Liz Truss: white female, unknown religion
• Kemi Badenoch: female with Nigerian heritage, Christian
• Nadhim Zahawi: male with Iraqi heritage, Kurdish
• Penny Mordaunt: white female, Catholic
• Tom Tugendhat: white male, Catholic
• Jeremy Hunt: white male, Church of England

As you’ve probably already gathered, only 2 out of the 8 candidates were white males.

Even before the leadership race, unlike the Labour party, the Tories were able to produce two female Prime Ministers. Now, we also know that the next Tory PM will not be a white male.

So how did the Conservative Party become such a beacon of diversity? And, is it really?

The Cameron clean up

When David Cameron became an MP back in 2001 the diversity gap between Labour and Conservatives was glaring.

Labour had 12 non-white MPs and 95 female MPs. Not exactly a glowing record, but much better than the Tory’s: they didn’t have a single non-white MP. Only 14 of their MPs, out of 165, were women.

Then David Cameron stepped in.

Many forget that Cameron’s One Nation Conservativism was born out of a drive to soften the “nasty party” Tory image — and ultimately halt Labour landslides. It wasn’t until the 2008 financial crisis, and their subsequent crusade for austerity, that the Tory Party appeared to harden again.

So, when David Cameron was voted in as Leader, he pledged to fix the Conservative diversity problem and “catch up” with Labour:

• He froze the selection of all Conservative candidates. He then drew up a “priority list” of candidates, where half were female and a large group were ethnic minorities.
• Cameron fast-tracked minority and female politicians to safe seats, to ensure they became MPs.
• By putting diversity high on the Party’s priority list, Cameron changed the Tories’ culture. He awakened the Conservatives to the necessity of diversification and proved that it was not to the Party’s detriment. In fact, as we’ll see later, members saw how this was a politically savvy move.

The result? Between 2010 and 2019 the number of non-white Conservative MPs rose from 2 to 22. The number of female MPs rose from 7 to 87.

A changing Britain changed the Party

“Minority” and ”Labour” have traditionally gone hand in hand. This is partly due to the fact that Labour has tried harder to be more inclusive than the Tories (another look at the parliamentary make-up in the early 2000s serves as proof).

Another reason was unimproved economic circumstances for minorities.

Circumstances are still far from ideal. But things have undoubtedly improved. For instance, those from an Indian ethnic group are the most likely to fall in the highest income bracket. 14% of ethnic Indians earn over £2,000 a week.

This would have been unimaginable only a few decades ago.

The result is that more ethnic minorities than ever before now vote Tory instead of Labour.

Very simply put, richer people have to pay more tax. And there is proof for this theory… a survey studying lottery winners proved that “the richer you get, the more likely you are to vote conservative”.

Ergo, the richer minorities become, the more likely they are to vote for a low-tax Party. Richi Sunak-omics aside, the Tory Party is seen as a low-tax Party.

It’s no surprise then that between 2010 and 2019, for example, Labour’s ethnic minority vote share went down by nearly 5%.

In summary, as ethnic minorities slowly earn more, the number of ethnic minority Tory voters steadily rises.

What’s more, this rise in ethnic minority Tory support means there is a bigger pool of minority political talent to pull from when choosing a Tory Member of Parliament: more Tory MPs (and therefore Leaders) are likely to have a minority background.

How the Tory party reframed diversity

Instinctively Cameron knew that he needed to diversify the Tory Party to help modernise its image and, in turn, win over an unimpressed electorate. And demographic changes have helped make this more viable.

What Cameron probably did not anticipate is the longer-term effect.

Almost all population growth over the next half century will come from immigration. The more the Tory Party looks to represent minorities, the more they will win votes from one of the fastest-growing sections of the electorate.

What started out as an image overhaul has ended up as a long-term political win for the Conservatives.

What’s also interesting is that the Tory Party’s version of diversity has been reframed with a distinctively anti-progressive flair. It doesn’t emphasise the need to give people from all backgrounds an opportunity. Instead, it highlights the merits of individualism.

Whether it be Sunak or Badenoch, “Tory values” (like reduced red tape and taxes) are bought up for reasons as to why their families’ sacrifices were paid off.

Moreover, it is said that MPs like Zahawi purposefully massage Brexiteers’ egos when he talks about how his parents “chose” the U.K. as their new home.

Words of warning

There is still a long way to go. Diversity at the top of the Party has failed to trickle down to the grassroots. The Conservatives only scooped up 20% of the ethnic-minority vote in 2019, for instance.

This is probably because, in large part, the ethnic wealth gap, whilst smaller than it was a few decades ago, is still huge.

Black households are most likely (54%) out of all ethnic groups to fall under the lowest income bracket. And Pakistani and Bangladeshi households are least likely (both 3%) to fall under the highest bracket.

Finally, just because a new Tory cabinet might be ethnically diverse, that doesn’t mean it’ll improve inter-ethnic relations.

Priti Patel is from a Ugandan-Indian background and she’s trying to deport all British refugees to Rwanda. What’s even more alarming is that all of the candidates in this year’s Tory leadership race backed this barbaric policy.

The bottom line: the Conservative Party may have adopted progressive policies on diversity pre-Brexit, but that doesn’t mean the Tory Party will become progressive post-Brexit.