‘EMBRACE ASIAN COMMUNITIES’
As Sunak loses prime ministerial race, Tories urge Truss to…
SENIOR Tories urged the new prime minister, Liz Truss, to continue “engaging, consulting, and listening to” Asian communities, as they told Eastern Eye of their concern that the progress made by her predecessors will be undone.
“The problem with Liz is that she doesn’t listen,” said one senior south Asian Tory parliamentarian. “She’s stubborn, and she thinks her way is the right way. She is gonna have to listen, consult and embrace Asians; otherwise, she’s just going to fail.
“Liz must understand for the Asian community, particularly the Indian community, they will see this as a slap. Emotionally, that’s what it amounts to.”
Under former prime minister Boris Johnson, they pointed out, Asians repeatedly held three of the four highest offices of state.
“No matter what you say about Boris, he would listen. He understood the importance of diversity, and he showed that time and time again,” they said.
“He replaced one Asian chancellor with another, one Asian home secretary with another, appointed an Asian business secretary who then went on to head the biggest challenge facing the planet – climate change.
“And he appointed an Asian attorney-general who could be our next home secretary.
“The media portrayed Boris as someone who bluffed his way through his career. But what they did not know was
that he asked for ideas, and took up the best ones, including embracing south Asian talent.”
Another senior south Asian parliamentarian, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they were concerned the party was going backwards.
“I’m worried about the lack of Indian representation in the cabinet,” they said.
“The British Indian community are more likely to vote Conservative, but the lack of representation at the top will alienate the community.
“It’s all very well Liz Truss wearing a sari and going to the Neasden Mandir (in north London) during the election, but we need our voices at the cabinet table.”
In her leadership acceptance speech on Monday (5), the new prime minister made clear her priorities.
“I will deliver a plan to cut taxes and grow the economy,” Truss told the party faithful after she was declared the winner.
“I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply.”
“I will deliver on the National Health Service,” she added.
The former chair of the British Medical Association (BMA), Dr Chaand Nagpaul, said the prime minister must understand the racial disparities in the NHS.
“I’m deeply worried the government has, up to now, used words like ‘disparity’, and it hasn’t used words like ‘structural racism’, diluting the reality that’s being faced by those working in the health service and the reality facing the population is large,” said Dr Nagpaul, the current chair of the BMA forum for racial and ethnic equality.
“The cost of living crisis itself is likely to affect ethnic minorities to a greater degree in the same way as we saw with Covid,” he added.
“It manifests itself in an unequal manner, and you will get people who are in insecure employment being affected more.
“The same issues we saw with the pandemic – people who are in deprived areas… we are likely to see a disparate and unequal impact of the cost of living crisis affecting certain ethnic minorities to a greater degree.”
The Conservative party had 170,000 eligible voters, accounting for about 0.3 per cent of the UK electorate.
Of these, about 84 per cent voted, and after six weeks of campaigning, Truss beat Rishi Sunak by 21,000 votes.
This suggests that under half (47 per cent) of the party wanted her as leader.
Lord Rami Ranger told Eastern Eye it did not matter now because she won.
The new prime minister must embrace diversity, he added.
“I’ve congratulated her [Liz Truss] already, and I think she ran a very good campaign,” said the peer.
“There will be no bitterness for each other, and they were just talking policies, rather than personalities.
“At the same time, I salute Rishi for inspiring billions of people all over the world, with what can be achieved with your ability, with your tenacity, commitment and imagination.
“I would like to see Rishi as a deputy prime minister, and given a portfolio of his choice to take advantage of what he has to offer.”
However, that is unlikely to happen, because sources have told Eastern Eye that the former chancellor intends to return to the back benches.
However, they are concerned that because the Tories have rejected a south Asian, the party could suffer.
“I don’t think we’ll see a sudden sinking of the Tory ship by Asian donors, because we’re more loyal than that.
“But I do think it’s an open door for, say, the Labour party, particularly for Indian voters, to say, ‘consider us again’.
“I’m in no doubt there will be a lot of overtures made.”
One Westminster Tory insider, close to the former prime minister, said the result was a huge blow to south Asians.
“Rishi won the campaign, but lost the contest,” they said.
“That’s already proved to be the case, in the sense that Liz has pivoted towards Rishi’s policies of addressing the cost of living as a priority. When she previously said that she wouldn’t be giving out handouts, it looks like she will.
“As time goes on, I suspect that a lot of what Rishi was saying will be adopted into the Liz approach to government.
“It’s not in any way shameful to be picking the best of your opponent’s ideas, whether they’re direct or indirect, if they are good ideas.”
The new prime minister’s in-tray is already full. She will have to tackle the cost of living crisis, energy bills, and doubledigit inflation.
Ranger supports a windfall tax of the energy companies.
“We have to subsidise energy, because we are not growing as fast as some other countries,” he said.
“Industry, especially the hospitality industry, depends on energy and it would be good idea to freeze the prices.
“I’m always concerned about south Asian businesses. We are not that fortunate in we can rely on our family members. They will face more challenges, because south Asians have new businesses, they have high mortgages, they have taken loans or whatever.
“So, my request is we return to some sort of furlough scheme, because it was a very good idea which saved a lot of talent.
“Once you lose talent, it is very hard to find it again.”
Lord Karan Bilimoria, founder and chair of Cobra Beer and former president of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), warned that businesses would go under unless they got help.
“Our input costs have gone up by well over 25 per cent, and our energy costs have gone up hugely,” he explained.
“So, we are in a situation where we just cannot pass on our costs to our customers, who in turn cannot pass them on to the consumers.
“We’ve got a situation where consumers themselves are squeezed and are really suffering, and businesses similarly are as well.
“At this stage, you need government’s help, as the government helped during the pandemic.”
He said he wants the new prime minister to cut taxes.
“If you cut taxes, and that includes incentivising tax that incentivises inward investment, that in turn generates the growth which generates the jobs. That growth, the taxes, pays down the debt.
“At the moment, consumers are cutting back, there’s no question about that. And if you reduce taxes, you help consumers.
“If you help consumers spend, you’re helping businesses.
“This is the time when government has a role to play to do that.”
Dawood Pervez, the managing director of the UK’s largest independent wholesaler, Bestway, said it was important the new administration listened to small and medium-sized businesses.
“She has to address the whole business rate system, and how that affects small businesses, especially retail businesses,” he said.
“The rates system takes a long time to catch up with actual market practice. With five yearly reviews, it takes too long.
“In general, there’s been a consistent drip of fairly important large regulation impacting businesses.
“How policy is formed is not necessarily taking into account the views of smaller business, because they don’t really engage with government as well as big business does.”
Sam Patel, the executive director of one of the UK’s largest independent pharmacy chains, is more optimistic.
He does not believe rejecting Sunak will mean the party will lose support from south Asian communities.
Instead, he wants the new prime minister to concentrate on helping business.
“Support is going to be a real challenge. We are looking at real labour shortages among many Asian business owners.
“This is an opportunity to potentially have the points-based immigration system, support further immigration of skilled Indian workers in healthcare, doctors, nurses.
“India has fantastic nurses, and other areas where we could potentially benefit from skills of people arriving from the Indian subcontinent.”
During the leadership contest, political commentators described the face-off as “fractious”, with “personal attacks” on both candidates.
They are also speculating that Truss will appoint those most loyal to her.
Jaffer Kapasi, the former president of the Leicestershire Asian Business Association and businessman, is of the view that the Conservatives must now unite behind their new leader.
“The whole question is how she’s going to unite the party,” he said.
“That’s one of the fundamental factors because we got some key MPs sitting on the back benches.”
But Kapasi also wants the new prime minister to concentrate on other challenging issues.
“There are always things like where many new communities are affected.
“If you look at the police, there is still a lot of harassment at the grassroots level, especially for people from ethnic minority communities.
“If you look at education, there’s such a disparity in the educational system of the inner city and of others.
“That’s a lot for any new prime minister to deal with.”
Another big, yet unanswered, question is what will Sunak do now?
He has said he will support the new prime minister from the back benches, and those who know him well believe he will remain in public service.
“He doesn’t need to work,” one unnamed source said. “But it is his character to help his country and citizens.
“He could take his time, and in the future, there might be something that comes up, which he wants to do.
“It could be the president of the World Bank, or it might be some other form of public service that attracts him in the fullness of time.”
But some parliamentarians have criticised the manner in which Truss failed to shake his hand when she went on stage to accept her victory.
“It will be noticed and will rankle, especially among many Indians, and it was graceless,” they said.
“Liz had a chance to be more vocal and gracious in acknowledging Rishi.
“To simply dismiss him as just another candidate was a big political mistake and an error of judgement.
“You’ve just won, and it would have shown class if she had been more effusive about his achievements.”