Race And British Electoral Politics (PDF)

CHAPTER FOUR
Ethnic minority participation and representation in the British electoral system (p. 74-75)

Michel Le Lohé

The Census of 1991 indicated that the ethnic minorities accounted for 5.5 per cent of the population of Great Britain. This same land mass (which excludes Northern Ireland) elects 84 members to the European Parliament, 641 members to the Westminster Parliament and almost 25,000 persons to serve as representatives on the principal local government authorities. If the ethnic minorities were to be represented exclusively by members of their own communities then one would expect that there would be about five MEPS and 35 MPS whose origins were either Asian or black. The reality is that there are no MEPS and only nine MPs with any claim to membership of the ethnic minority communities. In terms of this kind of representation then the ethnic minorities are grossly underrepresented.

There is, however, a striking difference in Asian representation at the local government level. In the seven local authorities outside London where the Asian population exceeds 10 per cent, Asians provide 13 per cent of all councillors. This is just 1 per cent lower than the average Asian population in these authorities—thus the representation is almost exactly proportionate. It is, however, not proportionate in the partisan sense since 64 of these 65 councillors are Labour. The pattern of Afro-Caribbean representation is similarly overwhelmingly Labour, but the level significantly lower.

The chapters in this book by Adolino and Geddes give further insights into Asian and black representation in local government and the remarkable level of Asian representation at this level is considered in detail later in this chapter. It remains true that the ethnic minority populations, like many other groups in society, are not proportionately present as representatives in the Parliaments at Strasbourg and Westminster. So far as participation is concerned,

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