Summary
Transmitted 7 January 2013. Posted 15 January 2013
On Monday 7 January I took part in a panel discussion on the Islam Channel, on their Politics & Media show.
The presenter was John Rees and the participants were:
When posting the video on YouTube, the Islam Channel gave it the title "Politics and Media: Are the Conservatives still the party of the white middle class?" That word "still" in that title presumes that the Party was so positioned until recently, which is something I do not accept!
However it is clear from analysis of the May 2010 General Election, and from polling and focus group data that the Conservative Party presently has much lower support from ethnic minority voters than it does from white British voters. It is worth reading Lord Ashcroft's report “Degrees of separation - Ethnic minority voters and the Conservative Party” published in April 2012.
One of my personal goals is to help change that.
I was pleased that Professor Saggar acknowledged the many changes that the Conservative Party has made to broaden its appeal since David Cameron became leader in 2005. I also shared my experience from telephone canvassing that ethnic minority Britons have similar concerns about the level of immigration as do white Britons.
You can watch the programme below.
Follow @Mohammed_Amin