Iain Dale today writes that "Tories have more BME candidates than Labour." He is wrong: Labour has 42 black and minority ethnic candidates to the Conservative's 38.
Iain Dale today writes that “Tories have more BME candidates than Labour.” He is wrong: Labour has 44 BME candidates to the Conservative’s 38.
To be fair, Dale took his total from Operation Black Vote, which excluded 12 Labour MPs who are standing again. Dale writes:
“Yesterday, Operation Black Vote eulogised about the 30 BME candidates Labour has standing for them at the next election. It was very strange that the author of the piece, Lester Holloway, made no mention of the fact that at the last election the Conservatives had more BME candidates than Labour (41 to 32), a fact which is probably going to be repeated at the forthcoming election. The Conservatives have selected 38 BME candidates so far.”
That said, the crucial point is not the number of PPCs but the number who make it to Parliament. At the last election, just 2 of the Conservative’s 41 black or minority ethnic PPCs were returned (4.8 per cent) compared to 13 of Labour’s 32 (40.6 per cent). The Liberal Democrats returned no BME candidates.
Labour also have 20 PPCs in seats currently held by sitting Labour MPs while the Tories have just four. Dale predicts that 13 will be returned this time (34.2 per cent) but this is presumably based on his projection of an overall majority for the Tories.
Meanwhile, on the day that Harriet Harman raises again the issue of class, the GMB have published an analysis of the occupations of Tory candidates. It shows that of the 537 candidates and existing MP selected to stand 96 per cent of Tory candidates at next general election are from the top three (of ten) occupational groups. These are managers and senior officials; professional occupations; and associate professional and technical occupations. Of this group, 63 are from the banking and finance industry.
Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary said:
“People from lower social backgrounds are particularly scarce among the Tory candidates at the next election.Less than 1% come from the six lower occupational groups employing 56% of the UK workforce.
UPDATE 16.37:
The OBV article also omitted the selections of Victor Agarwal in North Swindon and
Dr Amanjit Singh Jhund in Windsor. An earlier version excluded these PPCs and wrongly stated that Labour only had 42 BME PPCs. It is actually 44 as the corrected article outlines.
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26 Responses to “Dale wrong on BME candidates”
Liz McShane
Michael – we live in a diverse/multi-cultural society (thank God) so it is natural to think that our political representatives should reflect this and not just in terms of race/ethnicity but also gender. If you think that it is fine for the UK to be governed by a group of white middle class males that’s your choice but it is hardly fair. So I really do not understand why you have a problem with this.
Michael
Previous debate considered, it seems rather closer to the fact that there is a place for talking about race so long as it can be used to secure a politically valuable ‘progressive’ agenda.
Michael
@Liz – please do tell me wherever I said that? I am the one arguing against racism – and suggesting that those candidates appearing on these BME lists might have reason to feel a little peeved, considering their manifest talents and positive contributions seem, in the minds of some, to be placed second to their skin colour.
Do please try and keep up with the debate – or at least reflect on the argument a little more thoughtfully.
Liz McShane
Michael – my post as based on your last post:
…”@Will – rubbish, quite frankly. If you cheer on candidacy and success by skin colour and/or ethnicity, then your criteria is based on race.”…
It is not cheering candidacy on at all – just simply ensuring that our political representatives reflect the diverse make-up of our society. I stand by my last post entirely.
Michael
@Liz – then you continue to miss the point
Best,
Michael