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Politics

Muslim, Ethnic candidates denied winnable seats in General Election 2001

From the Muslim News

Since the last General Election, all three of Britain's main political parties have set up special units to attract ethnic minority voters, who, according to Operation Black Vote (OBV), could decide as many as 100 Parliamentary seats. Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats accept that Blacks and Asians are highly under-represented in the 659 member House of Commons, but attempts to redress the situation is a "sham," says OBV National Coordinator Simon Woolley.

Research carried out by The Muslim News shows that out of 171 new candidates selected for winnable or potential target seats, only four are from ethnic backgrounds, including two with majorities to overturn. This is out of a total of 61 ethnic candidates so far chosen by the main parties. The others, apart from Labour's existing 10 minority MPs, are all placed in constituencies, where there seems to be little or no real hope of being elected.

At the time of going to press, 27 Labour MPs have announced their intentions of standing down from Parliament. Ethnic candidates lost out in one of the most obvious targets, Brent East, where there is an estimated 40 per cent minority population. But at Birmingham Perry Barr, Muslim candidate Khalid Mahmood won in a late selection, which was being endorsed on March 27. Prior to the decision, the only Black or Asian replacement for a retiring MP had been Parmjit Dhanda, a Sikh defending a 8,259 majority in Gloucester. The Conservatives have 21 MPs retiring from Parliamen t but not one ethnic minority candidate has been selected for any of the vacancies. Likewise, none are replacing any of the seven Liberal Democrat MPs, who have decided to stand down.

The situation in marginal seats is no better. A staggering 80 per cent of all Tory candidates are new. In their top 75 target constituencies requiring the smallest swings, no less than 63 fresh faces are hoping to regain seats lost in the 1997 landslide defeat. But only one, Shaisesh Vara, a Hindu, contesting Northampton South, is from an ethnic minority background.

Labour is placing at least 35 new candidates in constituencies with fewer than 5,000 votes to overturn. But its selection process has included only Chauhdry Shafique with an outside chance in Wycombe.

Among 24 new candidates chosen by the Lib Dems in potential target seats, ethnic minorities have been totally excluded again and chosen for other constituencies, where there is little realistic hope.

"To say the least, the case to address the massive deficit in Parliament of Blacks and Asians is very disappointing, for Muslims it is even worse," Woolley said. He referred to the treatment of Mohammad Sarwar after he was became the first Muslim MP in 1997. "He was hung out to dry and the Labour Party did not even make any apology after he was cleared of allegations of fraud," he told The Muslim News.

Woolley called on the ethnic minority communities to put intense pressure on the political parties to ensure that they do not short change Black and Asian candidates again like this time round. "It was not good enough. As an absolute minimum, they must recruit and promote talent in the country. If community politics are respected, only then will more candidates come forward," he said.

Officials are reluctant to admit whether there is institutional racism or institutional Islamophobia inside the three main political parties. But statistics show that Black or Asian candidates have lost out in the selection process in winnable or marginal constituencies, even where there are sizeable ethnic minority voters that could prove crucial in deciding the result.

Of the 100 target seats identified by OBV, new candidates were selected in more than half, but virtually all were White. The majority are in Conservative targets, where there are high expectations of gains, but Labour has also missed the opportunity to appoint ethnic minority candidates in nine and the Lib Dems in eight. Muslim barrister, Mohammed Khamisa, was reported last year to have been turned down by every one of the 13 Conservative constituencies he applied for.

Shahid Malik, the only ethnic minority member of the Labours all powerful National Executive Committee (NEC), has been unable to secure selections in Preston, Sheffield, Tottenham and Brent East, Ken Livingstone's old constituency with one of the highest ethnic population in the country.

"If, as expected, the new census (2001) shows that the ethnic population has risen to 10 per cent, it would equate to 65.9 MPs to be representative. Currently there are ten and this represents a massive challenge," Malik, the first Muslim member of the NEC, told The Muslim News. He pointed out that all 10 were Labour MPs and also praised the current Government for appointing the first four ethnic minority ministers.

"From a Muslim perspective it is important to remind ourselves that the size of the ethnic minority challenge is dwarfed into near insignificance when compared to challenge that faces the Muslim community," Malik said. "If we accept there are 2 million Muslims in the UK then a Parliament reflecting society would need 22 Muslim MPs, and yet we have only one such MP - needing a 21 fold increase." He said he was not so much disappointed about his own efforts, but for other competent candidates, who had shown integrity, but who have failed to make a breakthrough.

Malik, a Labour Party member for seve nteen years, suggested there were differing reasons to blame for the poor showing, requiring changes in attitudes by all political parties as well as recognising "some of the petty in-fighting that often plagues Muslim communities". He believed that organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain could play a more effective and dynamic role. "They need a sharper edge to them, which is possible without compromising their traditional diplomatic style," Malik believed. He was also convinced that party machinery could be utilised to help create greater equality, mentioning that many parties had "rightly adopted positive and effective initiatives towards women".

With regard to increasing the number of women MPs, the Equal Opportunities Commission produced a study in March calling for a change in the law to use "special measures" to boost the number of candidates selected, but there has been no similar recommendations for ethnic minorities. Vice Chairman of the Conservatives, Steven Norris, says his party disagrees with positive discrimination. "We also do not believe in tokenism," he said in reference to minority candidates being placed in unwinnable seats to make up the numbers. Instead, he insisted that some of the Tories 8 candidates from ethnic backgrounds had realistic chances of winning.

"The Conservatives have become a much more outgoing party looking to welcome all sections of the community," Norris told The Muslim News. "It was dedicated to doing better at the Cultural Unit and William Hague had appointed three ethnic minority advisers to ensure this," he said. Norris, who heads the Unit, also referred to the success in the elections to the European Parliament in 1999, when the Party became the first to have two Asian MEPs, including one Muslim. By implication, he accepted that there should be "50 to 60 MPs" in the House of Commons from ethnic origins. But he said "that will be the targets next time".

Nasser Butt, responsible for promoting minorities in the Liberal Democrat Party, also rejected suggestions of any bias against the selection of ethnic candidates. "The 22 so far selected are like many candidates in 'development' seats," he told The Muslim News. "Unlike the two other main parties, the LibDems are not as well positioned in having the same numbers of safe or target seats," he said. But Butt equally accepted there was a need for greater involvement of ethnic minorities at grassroots level.

While the Conservatives have completed their list of candidates and do not expect any changes if the General Election is held before the summer, both Labour and the LibDems have still to finalise their selections. But none of outstanding vacancies are in marginal seats.

In the case of Labour, it is more than likely that at least several more MPs will decide to retire from Parliament, once date is announced. Several are thought to be wrangling their seats for peerages, before standing down. It will leave a tight timetable for nominating replacement candidates, and in some cases, central offices could be called upon to play an influential role in speeding up the selection process. Having already missed so many opportunities, the late retirements are seen as presenting a last chance in this election to address the situation by not overlooking ethnic minority representatives.