The Tories risk being out of power for generations if they fail to reach out to Britain’s ethnic minority communities, one of the party’s most prominent Muslim politicians warned Monday.
London MEP Syed Kamall said there was a “growing gulf” between the Conservatives and millions of ethnic minority voters. He said he fears his party could lose more seats at the next election unless it bridges this gap.
According to the ConservativeHome wensite Mr Kamall stated: “An estrangement between the party and key sections of the population is threatening to hinder our prospects in many areas of the country. The growing gulf between Conservatives and Britain’s millions of black and minority ethnic (BME) voters is an issue we need to tackle urgently. Failure to reach out to more diverse voters means that we could face being out of power for generations.”
Mr Kamall, who is co-chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament, said electoral figures on attracting ethnic minority voters made “chastening reading”. Labour has two thirds of the vote in the top 75 seats where half the BME population lives, he explained.
His warning came after Finsbury Park imam Mohammed Mahmoud accused the Government of a “lacklustre” effort to fight Islamophobia. Former foreign secretary Mr Johnson also faces an internal party investigation after saying Muslim women who wore the full face veil “look like letter boxes”.
