One million votes from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities helped put David Cameron back into Downing Street, according to new research into attitudes among minority voters.

Labour remains well ahead with BAME voters on 52%, finds research by the thinkthank British Future, but the gap between the two main parties is shrinking dramatically, especially among Asian voters.

One-third (33%) of BAME voters supported the Conservatives in 2015, its best result so far. The Liberal Democrats and the Green party each took 5% of the BAME vote, with 2% voting for Ukip.

Based on an estimated 3 million BAME voters taking part in the election, the results equate to the Conservatives securing a million BAME votes for the first time in the party’s history– while Labour achieved 1.6m. The Lib Dems and Greens both gained about 150,000 votes from this group, with Ukip on 60,000 and the SNP on 40,000.

Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, said: “This research shows that ethnic minority votes are more ‘up for grabs’ than ever before. Minority voters still prefer Labour to the Conservatives. But where Labour once held on to these voters when they became more affluent, through an appeal to fairness and solidarity, that may now have broken down.

“If it presents itself only as a party of the underdog, Labour may send a message to aspirational ethnic minority voters that, if you get on in British society, you ‘trade up’ to the Tories – just as C2s did for Margaret Thatcher.”

The new study, the largest of its kind to be published around the 2015 election, shows again the challenges thrown up by the result for Labour as the party seeks to win back Ukip voters in the north without alienating its base of BAME supporters.

It is not clear if those minorities that swung to the Conservatives were attracted by its entrepreneurial message or alienated by the tougher line from Labour on immigration. The decades-long failure by the Tories to attract BAME voters has led to a great deal of soul-searching in the party and the fast-track promotion of BAME Tories to the cabinet, such as Sajid Javid’s appointment as culture secretary in 2014.



The survey was conducted by Survation for the thinktank among 2,000 respondents across Britain in the days after the election between 8 and 14 May.

The research also reveals interesting differences in party support by ethnic group, showing much higher support for the Conservatives among Asian voters than other ethnic minorities:

Asian: 50% Labour, 38% Conservative

Black: 67% Labour, 21% Conservative

Mixed race: 49% Labour, 26% Conservative



Katwala said in towns and cities such as Watford, Swindon and Milton Keynes, the Conservatives had polled well with “aspirational” BAME voters. “The middle-England ‘Mondeo Man’ of the 2015 election could well be a British Asian,” he said.

“The Conservatives have done well in extending their appeal to minority voters – even though these may have been votes for David Cameron rather than his party. If there were echoes of Enoch or Norman Tebbit in this election, about Britain being swamped, these weren’t coming from the Conservatives but from their Ukip rivals – who appealed to only one in 50 minority voters.”

Different faith groups also gave very different responses, with BAME Christians and Muslims preferring Labour to the Conservatives, but Hindus and Sikhs preferring the Conservatives to Labour:

Christian: 56% Labour, 31% Conservative

Muslim: 64% Labour, 25% Conservative

Hindu: 41% Labour, 49% Conservative

Sikh (based on a small sample): 41% Labour, 49% Conservative



Omar Khan, director of the Runnmymede Trust, a race equality thinktank, said: “Labour’s vote share looks to have held up best in the top 75 most diverse seats in the UK, where half of BME people live. But with more and more BME people moving outside the major cities the Conservatives appear well placed to make further gains in 2020 and beyond if they can respond to ethnic inequalities and realise BME aspirations while in government.”