A record number of ethnic minority MPs
The debate was all about a coalition government and no outright winner at the General Election! It took everyone by surprise as the Conservatives took an outright majority. The polls simply got it wrong, and the post-mortem now begins.
But amidst the shocks and surprises, one must not forget the rise of ethnic minority MPs. Fifteen new MPs have got elected compared to the last election in 2010. So the numbers have increased from 27 (4.2%) in 2010 to a record number of 42 or 6.6% this year.
Ethnic Minority MPs
YEAR NUMBERS
2015 42 6.6%
2010 27 4.2%
2005 15 2.3%
2001 12 1.8%
1997 9 1.4%
1992 6 0.9%
1987 4 0.6%
Of the 42 MPs, 19 are Conservatives and 22 Labour and 1 SNP. The Labour Party has traditionally pushed the ethnic candidates, but it can be said that that it was the Conservative Party who made significant strides to place ethnic minorities in winnable positions.
In terms of the backgrounds, there were some interesting trends as the number of mixed raced MPs increased dramatically. The diversity has also increased as more ethnic communities become represented in parliament.
BACKGROUND NUMBERS
Mixed Race 11
Pakistani 9
Indian 8
African 4
Bangladeshi 3
African Caribbean 2
Middle Eastern 2
Chinese 1
Japanese 1
Turkish 1
So how did candidates with a Hindu background do?
The number of MPs with Hindu background increased by one. It is not a huge rise, but the man in the limelight is Rishi Sunak who got elected in Richmond (York) for the Conservative Party. He is the son in law of Indian IT giant Infosy’s founder Narayan Murthy.
Those who kept their seats include Alok Sharma (Reading West), Priti Patel (Witham), Shailesh Vara (North West Cambridgeshire), Virendra Sharma (Ealing Southall) and Seema Malhotra (Feltham & Heston).
