Tory party’s diversity dividend
RANGE OF LEADERSHIP CANDIDATES REFLECTS SUCCESS OF INCLUSION EFFORTS, SAYS DAVID CAMERON
BORIS JOHNSON has been given credit for having the most diverse government in British history – and justifiably so. And this has been reflected in those who joined the Tory leadership contest.
Rishi Sunak, who is by far the best qualified to become prime minister, was born on May 12, 1980, in Southampton to Indian parents, and is the eldest of three siblings. His father Yashvir was born and raised in the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya (present-day Kenya), while his mother Usha was born in Tanganyika (which later became part of Tanzania). His grandparents came from Punjab province in British India, and migrated from East Africa with their children to the UK in the 1960s. Yashvir was a GP, while Usha ran a local pharmacy.
Suella Braverman is a Buddhist of Goan origin whose parents emigrated from Kenya and Mauritius; Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister, is the daughter of Nigerian parents; and Nadhim Zahawi is a Baghdad-born Kurd.
And, of course, Sajid Javid, who has just celebrated his silver wedding anniversary, was born on December 5, 1969, in Rochdale, Lancashire, one of five sons of Pakistani Punjabi immigrant parents. His father famously worked as a bus driver. Having resigned as health secretary, he pulled out of the leadership contest before it had even started. And Pakistani-origin Rehman Chishti, a junior foreign office minister, tried – but failed – to get on to the ballot paper.
In marked contrast, the Labour party is still caught in a time warp.
In one interview, Badenoch remarked: “What is amazing is how – when you talk to some people in Labour – they are still pretending it’s 1955 or 1948 and exactly the same as when the Windrush generation arrived.
“It is as though they have to pretend nothing has changed in order to justify their own argument. It is destructive for young people, because what they hear is the message that it doesn’t matter what you do, people are going to try and stop you. It means that they don’t bother, they are defeated before they start.”
That said, the right wing of the Conservative party and its backers in the media would still prefer either Penny Mordaunt, despite her relative lack of experience, or the foreign secretary Liz Truss, who believes in a “something for nothing economy” (according to Rishi).
The Sunday Telegraph last weekend had a big picture of Truss on page one and a huge one inside. She was given pride of place to promote her leadership credentials, while Rishi merited a small, single column head and shoulders image (as did the other three candidates).
Meanwhile, former Tory prime minister, David Cameron, who hasn’t revealed who he is backing, claimed credit for pushing the diversity agenda – which, to be fair, he did. He doesn’t want Boris to get all the praise.
Shortly after beating the favourite, David Davies, in the Tory leadership contest in 2005, Cameron announced he wanted a special relationship with India. It was also the first country he visited as leader of the opposition.
As prime minister, Cameron also said he wanted the British Indian community to help strengthen UK-India relations, and appointed Priti Patel as his Indian “diaspora champion”.
The work he began was taken forward by Boris.
However, Indians started voting for the Tories under Ted Heath, after he admitted the Uganda Asians, and continued to do so under Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
Writing in the Times last week, Cameron recalled: “Watching the Conservative party leadership contest takes me back to the contest I fought and won in 2005. I was one of seven MPs taking part; all of us were white, and all of us male.
“It was no surprise that the field was so narrow. We reflected a party whose 198 MPs included just 17 women and only two from ethnic minorities. We were the oldest political party in the world – and we looked it.
“I ran on a platform of ‘change to win’ and was determined to modernise the party, starting by addressing the appalling lack of diversity of Conservative candidates and MPs.”
He added: “To me, this agenda was never about political correctness; it was about political effectiveness. It wasn’t just that we were excluding from our party so much of the talent in our country, but our uniformity also stilted our policy development.
“During my first week in the job, I made a speech explaining that it wasn’t enough to open the door and say ‘come on in’ when all people would see was a sea of white male faces. We needed to get out there and bring people in.
“So I immediately froze the selection of Conservative candidates. I said that from our broader candidates’ list we would draw up a priority list, of which half would be female and a large proportion would be from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. Associations in winnable seats would have to choose from this ‘A-list’, and they would be encouraged to select candidates through ‘open primaries’ that were open to nonparty members.”
He faced opposition: “Many on the right found this hard to swallow. Conservatives have an aversion to positive discrimination – we believe in people rising to the top through their own merits. The trouble was this just wasn’t happening organically. The number of Conservative female MPs had barely improved since the 1930s. At some elections it had gone backwards. As recently as 2001, when I entered parliament, we had no black or Asian MPs. The party was so homogeneous that my first shadow cabinet comprised more people called David (five) than women (four).
“My pitch was therefore not for positive discrimination, but positive action. The party of meritocracy needed to accelerate meritocracy.”
Cameron added: “The opposition was forceful. Norman Tebbit, the former Tory chairman, said the A-list would alienate the party. The MP Edward Leigh wrote that it was ‘blighting careers, discouraging activists and is contrary to natural justice’. The website ConservativeHome wanted it scrapped.
“There was no silver bullet. The A-list helped to drive change but it wasn’t enough. So we shifted tack and told associations that they could pick their candidates from the full list, but stipulated that half of the interviewees had to be women. We headhunted great candidates from ethnic minorities and pushed them forwards.
“Our approach was ‘whatever it takes’, including appealing on television for new candidates from different backgrounds, as I did on the Andrew Marr Show.”
There was change: “From the A-list onwards, our party has kept on adding to the list of British firsts. Sayeeda Warsi, the first Muslim female cabinet minister; Sajid Javid, the first chancellor from an ethnic minority; Priti Patel, the first female home secretary from an ethnic minority; and, of course, Theresa May, Britain’s second female prime minister.
“All before Labour has even had a female leader.
“I was delighted when I saw that of the 11 MPs who put themselves forward for the party leadership, more than half were from ethnic minority backgrounds and four were women – and that all of these were elected following our modernising reforms. It means that, from September, it is likely that we will have Britain’s third female PM, or Britain’s first ethnic minority PM.”
He added: “Indeed, change has created its own momentum – and who can doubt that the stories told by Kemi, Rishi, Suella, Nadhim, Saj and others about why they chose the Conservative party will inspire hundreds of people from different backgrounds to join, canvass, stand and take part in our politics?
“A diverse party will be vital as we face one of our next great challenges: proving that our multi-ethnic, multi-faith democracy can be a truly cohesive, united society based on opportunity.”