BRITISH Asian support for the Labour party has diminished since the previous general election, according to new research that polled Indian, Pakistani, African and Caribbean communities in the UK.
Indian voters showed the most drastic change, with just 18 per cent saying they would choose Labour in May 2015 – from 77 per cent in 1997, the Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday (December 24).
Research from the British Election Study also indicated that among Pakistanis, Labour was likely to the party of choice for 57 per cent of the voters, a drop from 77 per cent previously, and within the African community too, support has dropped from 79 to 63 per cent.
Dr Maria Sobolewska, an academic from Manchester University and who was involved in the Ethnic Minority British Election Study, was quoted as telling a conference this month: "What is happening is that the Labour party is sitting pretty, or at least they think they are sitting pretty, they think they have the minorities is the bag.
"The ethnic minorities are seen to be the core of Labour party vote, they have been for years, for decades but I will make these people here representing Labour a little bit uncomfortable about this assumption that minorities will vote for them as a matter of course.”
In the previous 2010 election, the Conservatives drew 16 per cent of the ethnic vote and senior party members have acknowledged that they need more support from the Asian and black communities if they are to win in May 2015.
In October, Labour leader Ed Miliband pledged that if the party won the election next year, “in every Government Department there will be a comprehensive Race Equality Strategy to tackle those persistent inequalities that many black people face”.
