UK House gets 42 non-white MPs

CHANGE Many come from white-majority constituencies; chorus for change in electoral system grows

LONDON: The Conservative party winning a majority has been interpreted as the “death of British liberalism”, but a closer look at the election results reveals that a record number of 42 non-white MPs were elected, many from white-majority constituencies.

The 42 MPs include 10 of Indian-origin, five each from Labour and Conservative parties.

As par ties mulled over the surprise results, senior Labour leader Alan Johnson pointed out several lacunae in the party’s campaign, and wrote, “Everyone is entitled to their theory as to what went wrong: mine is that from last week’s Question Time debate in Leeds, where Ed Miliband was assailed about Labour’s alleged overspending, the die was cast”.

The results renewed demands for a change in the electoral system from the first-past-the-post system to proportional representation as parties finished with vastly disproportionate number of seats compared to the votes they polled.

Noting the record increase in the number of MPs from a non-white background, Sundar Katwala of campaign group British Future said progress over the years was due to three reasons.

He said, “Firstly, both the Conservatives and the Labour party now regularly select nonwhite candidates in winnable seats. Secondly, the outdated assumption that ethnic minority candidates would only get a fair chance in highly diverse seats, because of voter prejudice, has been consistently disproven.”

“Thirdly, broader social changes, with increased ethnic minority success, have seen an increasingly confident group of younger ethnic minority politicians come through, expecting to be able to succeed on their merits.”