Can South Asians Swing Britain’s Elections?

voting_sign_madras_courier
Image: 7MB
The South Asian demographic in the UK is millions-strong. Any election has to account for their vote.

The Leicester Curry Awards have just announced their first place winner. From over 200 nominations, five finalists were settled on – and Britain’s most ethnically diverse city was left to vote on the best curry in town.

It was a harmless democratic exercise – because there is no racial preference to liking one curry over another. The rhetoric when it comes to national elections, however, is different.

The Remain vote won by a little over two percent of the vote in Leicester, amidst the lowest voter turnout in Leicestershire. It’s a winning percentage not far from the national average – where Leave votes had a three percentage point lead. In Leicester, where Indians alone constitute up to 28 percent of the population – the vote could have swung either way depending on how the Asian constituency felt.

Outside of Leicester, the wind blew a different direction.

After the smoke settled on Brexit, an unexpected demographic turned out to have voted Leave. The ‘British-Asian community’, numbering around three million, had largely voted to ‘Leave’ the European Union.



To continue reading, please subscribe to the Madras Courier.

Subscribe Now

Or Login


 

Copyright©Madras Courier, All Rights Reserved. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from madrascourier.com and redistribute by email, post to the web, mobile phone or social media.
Please send in your feed back and comments to [email protected]

0 replies on “Can South Asians Swing Britain’s Elections?”