In a bid to woo UK’s ethnic voters ahead of next month’s election, Premier David Cameron on Saturday said that Britain’s first black or Asian prime minister will be from the Conservative party.
Cameron, who is the leader of the Conservative party, has been working on attracting Indian and other ethnic minority voters in the lead up to the May 7 General Election.
“We are the first party to have a female prime minister (Margaret Thatcher 1970s), we were the party of the first Jewish prime minister (Benjamin Disraeli 1870s) and I know one day, we are going to be the party of the first black or Asian prime minister,” he said during a speech on equal opportunities in south London. “In the last Parliament, we increased our number of black and Asian MPs from two to 11. At this election, there is one party fielding more black and ethnic minority candidates than any other the Conservatives,” he said. Historically, ethnic minorities have been seen to favour the Opposition Labour party.
In the last 2010 General Election, of the 306 Conservative or Tory MPs elected, 11 were black or Asian and Labour had 16 ethnic minority MPs elected in 2010, while coalition partners Liberal Democrats had none. In 2015, the Tories are fielding 56 candidates from black and Asian communities and Labour is fielding 52 ethnic minority candidates.