UK: Fall of Conservative Government Marks End of South Asian ‘Tribal’ Politics

The ousting of Britain’s Conservative government this week is significant not just for the prospect of a more focussed Labour government to tackle the country’s chronic problems but also because it marks the end of the first administration where politicians of South Asian origin have played a leading but also often a significantly negative role.

The flow of members of parliament with parents of foreign origin looks set to continue, especially from South Asia that accounts for 26 MPs in the new parliament according to one assessment posted on X.

In the outgoing government, two women ministers from the Conservative Party’s right wing have been widely criticised for pursuing their party leadership ambitions, courting the party’s grass roots members, rather than focussing on sound policies.

Priti Patel and Suella Braverman, both former home secretaries, pushed unsuccessful anti-immigration policies despite themselves being from immigrant families that benefitted from being accepted into the UK. They have become bracketed with Kemi Badenoch, who had Nigerian parents. She was a more constructive business and trade secretary though she also aggressively courted the mostly right-wing Conservative Party membership.

Rishi Sunak was saddled with the task of managing the political debris he inherited from his prime ministerial predecessors Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

Sadly, even though he had built a sound reputation as chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister), he quickly showed that he lacked the political instinct and experience to lead and survive in a government torn by policy differences over a range of issues, notably immigration.

He called the election unexpectedly early without sufficient planning, and then had a series of fiascos. The worst was when he left France a day before other world leaders at World War Two’s 80th D-Day commemorations to return to Britain. That lead to massive criticism.

His parents, of Indian origin, arrived in Britain from East Africa long after the war and it seems he failed to realise the importance of the event to those whose British parents were alive and maybe served in 1944.

If there was a time when his origins counted against him (and I have never believed they were important), it was certainly then, significantly reducing his personal support in the middle of the election campaign. It prompted Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right Reform Party to say Sunak “doesn’t understand our history and culture”, a rare public reference to his background.

Of the three women ministers, Braverman was – and is – the most brazenly focussed on the leadership. Born to Kenyan Indian and Mauritian parents, she adopted a dangerously shrill anti-immigrant tone, breaching collective cabinet responsibility and failing to solve the major and continuing problem of stopping boat people crossing the English Channel from France.

Such behaviour prompted Robert Buckland, a former justice minister, to attack her indirectly when he said, after losing his seat in the general election: “I’m fed up with performance art politics. I’ve watched colleagues in the Conservative Party strike poses, write inflammatory op-eds and say stupid things they know have no evidence for instead of getting on with the job.”

British politics however is not rid of Braverman (who was sacked by Sunak), Badenoch, and Patel, 52, who was born in London to Ugandan-Indian parents. All three have been re-elected as MPs and all are likely contenders to take over from Sunak, who has agreed to remain as party leader and leader of the opposition till the succession is organised.

Badenoch, 44, has the best chance of winning. The party might however go for more centrist candidates where the possible names include James Cleverly, also from an immigrant family with an English father and a Sierra Leonean mother. He has built a solid reputation, first working with Boris Johnson and more recently as foreign secretary and home secretary, and would be a strong contender against other middle-road possibilities.

Braverman (and possibly also Patel) is in favour of the Conservative Party admitting Farage, the charismatic politician whose Reform Party won an astonishing 14% of the votes in the general election, though only gained five seats in parliament.

The Conservative Party will now be split on how to handle Farage because he will always be trying to upstage them. But he has said his main target is Labour, where he wants to win voters at the next general election. Immigration will be the main policy battleground for this astute campaigner, following his earlier success as a crucial leader on Brexit.

Keir Starmer’s cabinet

In Keir Starmer’s new cabinet, there are three ministers with South Asian links, all getting posts in government for the first time. The new foreign secretary is David Lammy, 51, who was born in London to Guyanese parents, but had an Indian grandmother who was born in Calcutta and sent as indentured labour to Guyana. His mother went to the UK as part of the Windrush generation.

Lammy, whose commitment to policies has varied in past years, has just been named along with his wife, portrait painter Nicola Green, as a surprise second on the up-market Tatler magazine Social Power Index – a rare event for a Labour politician.

Also read | Keir Starmer: How Will Britain’s New Prime Minister Lead?

Starmer’s government has done extensive research and preparation on most major domestic issues, but it is weak on foreign affairs and Lammy has been on a steep learning curve after he was appointed shadow foreign secretary in 2021. He seems likely to visit India later this month.

He has had to row back from calling Donald Trump a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath” in a Time magazine article he wrote when the former president visited the UK in 2018. Recent trips to the US have included meetings with prominent Republican Party members, though there had been reports that he might have not been made foreign secretary.

Shabana Mahmood, 46, whose family roots are in Azad (Pakistani) Kashmir, has been appointed the justice secretary. Brought up in Birmingham she has been a practising barrister specialising in professional indemnity cases.

Lisa Nandy, 44, whose father is from Calcutta and mother is British, has been made secretary of state for culture, media and sport, where she is likely to be a stauncher defender of the BBC than her Conservative predecessors over the past 14 years.

It looks as though what Keir Starmer on Saturday called “tribal politics” will not be prevalent in the new government, even though they are continuing to flourish in the Conservative Party’s search for a new leader. Without actually naming Boris Johnson or his successors, Starmer promised that the government would “turn its back” on “picking issues just for party politics”.

This article was originally published on the author’s blog.

John Elliott is a journalist.